[WTCC] FIA WTCR 2018: WTCC / TCR Merger?

[Juntos]

Originally Posted by Mark0994

Well truth to be told first he only got because he was Chinese, and Ecclestone was looking for Chinese driver.
I am not saying he is bad, but Lessennes is much better driver then him.

Well he was in Citroen Racing kicking ass of Loeb, Muller, and etc. And by the way Lessennes showed how good he is at Monza today.

[Mark0994]

Originally Posted by Juntos

Well he was in Citroen Racing kicking ass of Loeb, Muller, and etc. And by the way Lessennes showed how good he is at Monza today.

Same as Comini. Best driver out there and he is fighting for P7...
I think that Autodis isn't good in setting their cars.
Just look at Terting, Target was helping them this weekend for Hyundai and he is fighting for P7, and in Assen he was way out of points.

[GM10]

"Kicking ass of Loeb and Muller" means finishing the championship 100+ points behind them with the very same car? Interesting, so Yvan was way better than Pechito and we all didn't know it.

Lessennes went out because of a puncture today.

[Juntos]

Originally Posted by GM10

"Kicking ass of Loeb and Muller" means finishing the championship 100+ points behind them with the very same car? Interesting, so Yvan was way better than Pechito and we all didn't know it.

I was more pointing out to those race winning weekends.

Originally Posted by GM10

Lessennes went out because of a puncture today.

A puncture that he had from a previous mistake.

[GM10]

You can't be serious.

[pimmy]

Remember WTCR? They had a race this morning. Bjork won.

Eurosport aren't going to show the Sunday qualifying session. ES1 has repeats of table tennis and ES2 has World Suberbike highlights followed by WTCR Slovakia highlights (yes, really!) during that time slot.

[Juntos]

Table tennis is very important.

[Juntos]

As it happens we're going to have 4 Hyundai battling for the title.

[Matt K]

And no one cares.... I mean, this is my personal opinion, but WTCR proved way less interesting than it had seemed before the season. It's probably due to all this BoP chaos, boring tracks and racing pensioners fighting for the title (I'm excluding Michelisz and Bjork of course).

[BobJones]

Originally Posted by Matt K

And no one cares.... I mean, this is my personal opinion, but WTCR proved way less interesting than it had seemed before the season. It's probably due to all this BoP chaos, boring tracks and racing pensioners fighting for the title (I'm excluding Michelisz and Bjork of course).

Exactly.

[S griffin]

I have to say it seems better than last season when the grid was struggling for numbers and it's future was in doubt. Seems the move to TCR has been healthy for the series

[Mies7337]

I was really looking forward to this season of WTCR. Last season TCR International series was really good racing and with the drivers who were coming to the WTCR, it looked very good. Yet, the FIA again does everything wrong: boaring tracks, dull BoP problems, only top 10 gets points, driving standards, only allowing 26 cars. Please FIA, just give this series to Lotti completely: he knows what to do.
A few things that might make this championship fun, I think:
- Rolling start after safety car (indycar and DTM style)
- No more street circuits apart from Macao, overtaking seems impossible even with these cars
- Allow at least 30 cars to race, top 20 points
- Somehow find a reason that drivers at the back can actually fight for podiums (maybe BTCC style compensation weight during the weekend), now the podiums during the year are exactly the same
- WE NEED MONZA, it's the best touring car track ever
Any other ideas?

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by Mies7337

I was really looking forward to this season of WTCR. Last season TCR International series was really good racing and with the drivers who were coming to the WTCR, it looked very good. Yet, the FIA again does everything wrong: boaring tracks, dull BoP problems, only top 10 gets points, driving standards, only allowing 26 cars. Please FIA, just give this series to Lotti completely: he knows what to do.
A few things that might make this championship fun, I think:
- Rolling start after safety car (indycar and DTM style)
- No more street circuits apart from Macao, overtaking seems impossible even with these cars
- Allow at least 30 cars to race, top 20 points
- Somehow find a reason that drivers at the back can actually fight for podiums (maybe BTCC style compensation weight during the weekend), now the podiums during the year are exactly the same
- WE NEED MONZA, it's the best touring car track ever
Any other ideas?

Actually allowing the audience to watch the races would be a good start!

I think the circuits are the biggest problem - TCR Europe and TCR Germany have both been so much better this year, and if you compare their circuits to the WTCR it's easy to see why!

Agree with your 4th point, I think BTCC style race formats and a tiny bit of success ballast would work a lot better. Oh, and the mid season break was ridiculous and made everyone completely forget that the series existed.

Also, maybe it's just me, but I don't think I've ever seen a grid of worse liveries either!

Unfortunately, it says a lot about your race series when you end up talking about next year with 2 or 3 rounds still to go...

[Sodemo]

The circuit list is mostly awful.

My list would be something like this;

Round 1 - Jerez, Spain
Round 2 - Mugello, Italy
Round 3 - Salzburgring, Austria
Round 4 - Sachsenring, Germany
Round 5 - Spa, Belgium
Round 6 - Watkins Glen, USA
Round 7 - Okayama, Japan
Round 8 - Dubai Autodrome, Dubai
Round 9 - Macau, Macau

[BobJones]

Originally Posted by Evantra

Also, maybe it's just me, but I don't think I've ever seen a grid of worse liveries either!

Looks are subjective. But you're not wrong. There's a lack of sponsorship dollars apart from a handful of teams, which doesn't help, but also you'd think with a blank canvas teams would do something more engaging.

[smithhehehaha]

Originally Posted by Mies7337

I was really looking forward to this season of WTCR. Last season TCR International series was really good racing and with the drivers who were coming to the WTCR, it looked very good. Yet, the FIA again does everything wrong: boaring tracks, dull BoP problems, only top 10 gets points, driving standards, only allowing 26 cars. Please FIA, just give this series to Lotti completely: he knows what to do.
A few things that might make this championship fun, I think:
- Rolling start after safety car (indycar and DTM style)
- No more street circuits apart from Macao, overtaking seems impossible even with these cars
- Allow at least 30 cars to race, top 20 points
- Somehow find a reason that drivers at the back can actually fight for podiums (maybe BTCC style compensation weight during the weekend), now the podiums during the year are exactly the same
- WE NEED MONZA, it's the best touring car track ever
Any other ideas?

I think many tracks cannot afford 30+ cars to race, like the Blancpain race last weekend, more than 50 cars for qualify, that many cars cannot get a clean space to do a hot lap. Although I want to have a full grid, but it have to consider the safety and regulation needs.

By the way, we still not have the rundown for the Macau GP, is it related to the WTCR issue?

[NaBUru38]

Qualifying could be split, like in IndyCar.

[pimmy]

I can only echo some of the points made. The broadcasting arrangement is utter nonsense; Saturday online only, Sunday on TV only and even then Eurosport would rather show repeats of tiddlywinks instead of the series they own and "promote".

The calendar is bad in terms of both frequency of events and venues visited. This was the third event I've seen from Ningbo and I'd say this one was the least bad. Like all modern circuits, it's been designed to be technical just for the sake of being technical and with no thought given to actual racing. And it has those stupid kerbs which can't withstand being driven over. Just awful.

Points for the top 10 is fine. If you're going to award points for positions lower than that, then you might as well give them to everyone.

I wish they would change the qualifying format. The standard 30 minute session is fine but the knockout system is a load of rubbish. It's contrived and pointless. They also need to stop (and this is applicable to a number of series) using a format where the back half to two-thirds of the field have their starting positions for more than one race decided by only one lap time. It's totally unfair and leads to predictable race results, especially since the teams have very little time between races to actually improve the car's setup.

[FIRE]

Have to admit I also prefer other series over WTCR. Not sure why exactly but I look more forward to TCR Germany, TCR Europe or STC2000 races.

[smithhehehaha]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

Qualifying could be split, like in IndyCar.

You remind me that the qualification on Formula E can also be exciting

[smithhehehaha]

A press conference may be held next week for the Macau GP, let's see if the WTCR race rundown is going to be issued at the same time

[Mark0994]

Commentator said during FP2 that there are rumors about certain 2018 racing champion who is currently guest in Wuhan will race in WTCR next year.
Only 2018 champion who is in Wuhan is Turkington or am I wrong?

[Racing Harz]

Originally Posted by Mark0994

Commentator said during FP2 that there are rumors about certain 2018 racing champion who is currently guest in Wuhan will race in WTCR next year.
Only 2018 champion who is in Wuhan is Turkington or am I wrong?

The 2018 Champion must not race at this weekend. Maybe he is visiting his new team in wuhan

[Mark0994]

Originally Posted by Racing Harz

The 2018 Champion must not race at this weekend. Maybe he is visiting his new team in wuhan

Oh yeah, didn't think about that

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by pimmy

The calendar is bad in terms of both frequency of events and venues visited. This was the third event I've seen from Ningbo and I'd say this one was the least bad.

I would think a round in the UK would really help. Somewhere like Brands or Donington would produce really great racing, as well as getting some exposure from potentially one of the series' biggest audiences. Would also be awesome to see few BTCC drivers as the wildcards!