 | |
| Category | Touring cars |
|---|---|
| Country | International |
| Inaugural season | 1987 |
| Folded | 2017 |
| Tyre suppliers | Yokohama |
| Last Drivers' champion |  Thed Björk |
| Last Makes' champion | Volvo |
TheFIA World Touring Car Championship was an internationaltouring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by theFédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It has had several different incarnations, including a single season in 1987 as the World Touring Car Championship and most recently a world championship (WTCC) that has run between 2005 and 2017. Following the 2017 season, an agreement was reached for the FIA WTCC to becomeFIA WTCR and use theTCR technical regulations.
The first World Touring Car Championship, which was open toGroup A Touring Cars, was held in1987 concurrent to the long-runningEuropean Touring Car Championship (ETCC). Additional rounds were held outside Europe atBathurst andCalder Park Raceway inAustralia (Calder used a combined circuit of the road course and the then newly constructed NASCAR speedway),Wellington inNew Zealand andMount Fuji inJapan. The Championship was well-supported by the factory European teams ofFord,BMW,Maserati andAlfa Romeo (until Alfa withdrew following the European races), but was embroiled in controversy. Unfortunately, the leadingBMW Motorsport teams and the Ford Europe-backedEggenberger Motorsport had developed a situation of "you don't protest us, we won't protest you"[citation needed]. While this worked well in the European races, when the championship landed in Australia the local teams took exception to the Europeans' somewhat liberal interpretation of the Group A rules. Subsequently, the Eggenberger cars were protested against and eventually disqualified from theBathurst 1000 results.
The championship was provisionally awarded to West German EggenbergerFord Sierra RS500 driversKlaus Ludwig andKlaus Niedzwiedz. It was not until March 1988 when their Bathurst disqualification was finalised that results were confirmed and ItalianSchnitzer Motorsport driverRoberto Ravaglia in aBMW M3 was declared the champion. The Entrants Championship was won by the Eggenberger Texaco Ford No 7 entry. The WTCC lasted only one year and was a victim of its own success — the FIA (andBernie Ecclestone) feared it would take money away from Formula One and stopped sanctioning the Championship.[citation needed] Asilhouette formula championship (proposed by Ecclestone) was announced by the FIA for 1988 which would have seen specialist racing chassis carrying bodywork resembling production roadcars powered by the about to be outlawed Formula One 1.5 litre turbo regulations, but manufacturers did not support the concept. Only one car, based on anAlfa Romeo 164 with a 3.5 litreV10 engine was built before the idea was abandoned.
In 2001, the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) was resumed with support from the FIA, the precursor to the current WTCC. In 2001, theItalian Superturismo Championship became the FIA European Super Touring Championship, with an extra class for Super Production cars alongside the mainSuper Touring class. In 2002, this evolved into the brand new FIA European Touring Car Championship, usingSuper 2000 rules, dominated byAlfa Romeo andBMW, but popular with the public due to the intense competition andEurosport live broadcasts.
At the request of interested manufacturers, the ETCC was changed to the current WTCC beginning with the 2005 season, continuing to useSuper 2000 andDiesel 2000 regulations.2004 ETCC ChampionAndy Priaulx and hisBMW 320i were the dominant driver-car pairing during the first three years of the revived championship, winning the2005,2006 and2007 Drivers and Manufacturers Championships.
In 2008, FrenchmanYvan Muller won the title after Race 1 in Macau in hisSEAT León TDI. This marked the first time an FIA sanctioned world championship, in any category, being won by a diesel powered racing car.SEAT León TDI won both championships for a second time in 2009, this time in the hands ofGabriele Tarquini.
_opening_lap.jpg)
2010 marked the start ofChevrolet's dominance of the championship with itsCruze model. FrenchmanYvan Muller became World Champion, fending off tough competition fromGabriele Tarquini andAndy Priaulx to win the first world championship forChevrolet. Muller continued his success into 2011, winning both drivers championship and helping Chevrolet to its second manufacturers championship after Muller's two teammates finished second and third in the drivers standings. This gave Chevrolet a clean sweep of both titles. The 2012 championship saw Chevrolet pick up where they left off in 2011, leading to a second year of championship clean sweeps, this time withRob Huff taking the drivers title.
The modern series has held events based all around the world including races inArgentina,Morocco,Hungary,Germany,Russia,France,Portugal,Slovakia,Czech Republic,Japan,China,Thailand andQatar with former races inBrazil,Great Britain,Italy,Macau,Netherlands,Spain,Sweden,Turkey and theUnited States.
Technical rules were modified in 2011 to allow 1.6L turbo gasoline engines, and the 2.0L gasoline and turbodiesel engines were outlawed in 2012. In 2014, new car regulations were introduced with the name TC1, with larger wings and more engine power. The old 1.6L turbo cars were renamed TC2 for a year and were dropped for 2015.
The series adoptedTCR regulations and merged with theTCR International Series for 2018, with the new merged series being namedWorld Touring Car Cup (WTCR).[1] The WTCR lost the World Championship status of the WTCC as official factory teams were not allowed, though some drivers and teams received backing from manufacturers.[2]
The WTCC usesSuper 2000 andDiesel 2000 cars, as cost control is a major theme in the technical regulation. Super 2000 engines are 1.6 L turbo-charged 4-cylinder engines producing approximately 380 bhp. Wheels are 18" in diameter, and large front and rear aerodynamic devices are permitted.[3]
Many technologies that have featured in production cars are not allowed, includingvariable valve timing,variable intake geometry,ABS brakes andtraction control system.
Currently, all WTCC races are awarded equal points. From 2010, these points have been based on the FIA's points system used in the FIA Formula One Championship and the FIA World Rally Championship.[4]
| Position | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 25 | 18 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
Between 2005 and 2009, the championship adopted the following points scoring system:
| Position | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 10 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
For the inaugural 1987 season, the championship used the following points scoring system:
| Position | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 20 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Drivers | Manufacturers | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Driver | Titles | Seasons | Rank | Manufacturer | Titles | Seasons | |
| 1st |  Yvan Muller | 4 | 2008,2010,2011,2013 | 1st |  BMW | 3 | 2005,2006,2007 | |
| 2nd |  Andy Priaulx | 3 | 2005,2006,2007 |  Chevrolet | 3 | 2010,2011,2012 | ||
 José María López | 3 | 2014,2015,2016 | Citroën | 3 | 2014,2015,2016 | |||
| 4th |  Gabriele Tarquini | 1 | 2009 | 4th |  SEAT | 2 | 2008,2009 | |
| Robert Huff | 1 | 2012 | 5th |  Honda | 1 | 2013 | ||
| Thed Björk | 1 | 2017 | Volvo | 1 | 2017 | |||
As per FIA WTCC all-time statistics on the official site of the WTCC.
The WTCC features entries with the backing, funding and technical support of a motor manufacturer. This can sometimes be a motor racing team running cars on behalf of the manufacturer or cars being run directly by the factory. Below is a timeline of manufacturer entries from the beginning of the championship in 2005.
| Manufacturer entries | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Alfa Romeo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BMW | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chevrolet | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Citroën | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ford | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Honda | Honda | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lada | Lada | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SEAT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Volvo | Volvo | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||
