WTCR 2022

[Csaba]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Good Audi are back, especially with the experienced lineup they have

Yup, only thing I'm sad about is replacing Vervisch with Bennani. But some rumours say that it was Audi's decision to use Vervisch elsewhere.

And I don't want to be rude about Mehdi, he is a TCR Europe champion at the end of the day, but for me, he sometimes was just a grid filler when we had 20+ cars strong fields in WTCC/R. Okay, he had really good results with the Citroen, but that was an amazing car.
Anyway he has the chance to confute me


And we have 15 cars. Let's see if Zengo can put a program together, otherwise we would need a few, smaller privateer teems to have at least 17-19 cars.

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by Csaba

And I don't want to be rude about Mehdi, he is a TCR Europe champion at the end of the day, but for me, he sometimes was just a grid filler when we had 20+ cars strong fields in WTCC/R. Okay, he had really good results with the Citroen, but that was an amazing car.
Anyway he has the chance to confute me

Agreed, seemed to be involved in a lot of incidents. But fair enough, dropped down and won TCR Europe (competitiveness of that grid is debatable!)

Just hope it doesn't bring Marrakesh back to the calendar...

[FIRE]

He's not a bad driver.

[S griffin]

I agree. Bennani has shown himself to be good enough to mix it with the best on his day.

[touring fan01]

only 17 entries

very disappointing

https://www.touringcartimes.com/2022...2-wtcr-season/

[S griffin]

They need to encourage others, even temporarily, to enter the series. It's not that hard to do, there's plenty of top quality drivers around

[Evantra]

I suppose quality is better than quantity Hopefully there are a few wildcards in the mix.

[steve_r]

I thought that the point of TCR rules was to get a nice big full grid with lots of different models of cars and the opportunity for drivers in other TCR series to take the step up. What has gone wrong?

Weird choice of tracks, dwindling grids, only 4 or 5 different models of car...

[SSmith]

17 is disappointingly low, but at least there is some quality on the grid. Further to steve_r 's point, TCR Europe has only got 4 represented brands this season.

I find it incredible that WTCR has fewer entries and manufacturers represented than TCR UK. In fact I think TCR UK may have the biggest entry of any TCR series globally right now? TCR Europe has 21, TCR Australia around 20, all other series I think are in the teens in entries.

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by S griffin

They need to encourage others, even temporarily, to enter the series. It's not that hard to do, there's plenty of top quality drivers around

Exactly. An incentive scheme or something, a 'we'll subsidise 2 or 3 entries from TCR Europe/TCR UK/TCR Asia etc.' for each race meeting, would get the grid size up and give greater exposure to national racers.
Or they should make it mandatory for each manufacturer to enter a guest car at 2 rounds of their choosing, or something along those lines.

I would imagine that should Korea, China, and Macau go ahead there will be at least 6 cars from the respective domestic/continental TCR series joining the grid.

[thetool]

Originally Posted by steve_r

I thought that the point of TCR rules was to get a nice big full grid with lots of different models of cars and the opportunity for drivers in other TCR series to take the step up. What has gone wrong?

Weird choice of tracks, dwindling grids, only 4 or 5 different models of car...

It's because the model doesn't work for a worldwide series. The sort of drivers filling out the fields in TCR series across the world can't/don't want to be travelling the world for races. TCR Europe works much better for them. At least 5 TCR Europe entries are ex-WTCC and quite of the newcomers in TCR Europe probably would have been WTCC entries 5-10 years ago.

[Alessio]

I'd be interested to know what the budgets are like for WTCR. If it's comparable to say, GT World Challenge, then it's not really a bang for your buck season, especially when there's so little promotion on behalf of Eurosport.

@SSmith Out of all of the various remaining TCR series, I think only the UK and Italian national series have more than 20 cars. The Chinese, Russian and Denmark series' are also fairly healthy, at least relative to the typical field-sizes of their respective national championships.

[Racing Harz]

Originally Posted by SSmith

I find it incredible that WTCR has fewer entries and manufacturers represented than TCR UK. In fact I think TCR UK may have the biggest entry of any TCR series globally right now? TCR Europe has 21, TCR Australia around 20, all other series I think are in the teens in entries.

TCR Italy has 32.

[FIRE]

Quality is good, for quantity we could use 3, 4 extra cars.

The move to electric powered cars isn't helping.
I assume the WTCR and eTCR will merge next season.

[Rubio]

Originally Posted by FIRE

Quality is good, for quantity we could use 3, 4 extra cars.

The move to electric powered cars isn't helping.
I assume the WTCR and eTCR will merge next season.

Fully agree, Eurosport clearly shifts it's focus to ETCR and electric racing. Even next week, ETCR is set to be shown live on Eurosport 1, while WTCR will be only on Eurosport 2.

Hyundai and Cupra downscale their WTCR activities, focusing on ETCR and that is -4 cars. While no new manufacturers seem to be interested in promoting ICE touring car machinery.

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by Rubio

While no new manufacturers seem to be interested in promoting ICE touring car machinery.

no new manufacturers in ETCR this year either

[NaBUru38]

I insist that there's too many date clashes.

[pimmy]

The opening race of the season was a predictable Pau procession.

[steve_r]

Yeah - processional and not exactly high on excitement. Its WORLD touring cars, meaning that they should pick the best tracks in the WORLD. Instead we have this.

[Alessio]

The end of Race 1 was alright, I haven't caught up with Race 2 yet. I'm struggling to remember if Pau has ever produced an all-around good race, even in F3/3000...

[NaBUru38]

DirecTV bought the TV rights and I have cable TV. And I couldn't find either race on YouTube.

[Alessio]

I won't specifically direct you anywhere, but there is a Lat-Am Spanish recording on Youtube if you look in the right places...

[S griffin]

Shame it's hard to find the coverage of the series, although Eurosport usually do a good job

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by steve_r

Yeah - processional and not exactly high on excitement. Its WORLD touring cars, meaning that they should pick the best tracks in the WORLD. Instead we have this.

WTCR is not in the position to pick the circuits they want.

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by Alessio

The end of Race 1 was alright, I haven't caught up with Race 2 yet. I'm struggling to remember if Pau has ever produced an all-around good race, even in F3/3000...

Few years ago I saw a European or French GT4 race at night, racing was great.