WTCC series in detail
History of the Championship
The original World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) was first held in 1987, concurrent with the long-running European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) but with additional races held in Bathurst, Australia and Mount Fuji, Japan. The championship was won by Roberto Ravaglia in a BMW, but survived only one year due to the high costs.
In 2001, the ETCC was resumed with support from the FIA and after four successful years was upgraded to the WTCC beginning from the 2005 season. WTCC is now one of the three pinnacle FIA championships alongside Formula One and the World Rally Championship.
A World Championship
WTCC is run under a specification known as 'Super 2000' or 'S2000' for modified 2000cc mid-sized cars. The official rulebook is available online for bedtime reading.
The series consists of 11 race weekends in different countries: This season comprises 7 in Europe, 1 in the Americas, 1 in Africa and 2 in the Far East. See the calendar and results section for full details.
Teams
Cars directly and officially supported by manufacturers are known as 'works' cars. However, the preparation and running of groups of cars is done by 'teams'. These can be internal divisions of a works manufacturer itself, but are more usually specialist independent race engineering companies working under contract.
BMW, SEAT and Chevrolet are the major works players in the championship. BMW has two works 320si cars engineered by RBM under the BMW Team RBM banner. See car spotting for how to tell them apart. Similarly, SEAT have four works cars entered by SR Sport, and Chevrolet team have four works cars engineered by RML.
There is a strong 'privateer' independent division to the championship for teams running cars without direct manufacturer support. This is primarily filled by BMW, SEAT and Chevroletss. In total there are well over 20 cars on the grid, making WTCC one of the largest and healthiest of the international motorsport championships.
Cars
WTCC is run under a specification known as 'Super 2000' or 'S2000' for modified 2000cc mid-sized cars. These regulations ensure the link between real cars and real racing.
At least 2500 production cars and at least 25,000 of the model family must have been manufactured in the previous year. And engines like the BMW unit are limited to 8,500 rpm so there is surreal F1 whine.
Drivers
WTCC boasts a huge array of driving talent and experience. Of the BMW national team drivers, Andy's credentials are listed in the Andy in Profile section. He has a close rivalry with his younger team mate Augusto Farfus who also has a great record of race wins.
Besides fellow BMW drivers, Andy's main championship rivals again come from Chevrolet who have a highly experienced trio in Frenchman Yvan Muller, fellow Brit Rob Huff and Swiss Alain Menu. Muller was WTCC winner with SEAT in 2008.
Likewise, SEAT have a pan-EU combination with Italian Gabriele Tarquini who was 2009 champion, Spaniard Jordi Gene, and ex-F1 pilot Tiago Monteiro of Portugal.
A big contingent of committed Independent drivers also compete closely with the Works teams, including perennials Tom Coronel (SEAT), Sergio Hernandez (BMW) and Stefano D'Aste (BMW) who have all won the Independents Trophy. Contenders from major European national championships also compete at many races, and a number of non-European drivers taking part is rising rapidly.
Race Weekends
Each weekend includes timed free practice and a qualifying session on the Saturday, and 2 races on the Sunday.
Like in F1, the grid for race 1 is decided by a a two-part qualifying: The quickest 10 cars in the first Q1 go into an extra Q2 session which decides their grid positions. Race 1 then gets off from a rolling start to balance the relative advantages of rear- versus front-wheel drive cars.
The grid for race 2 is set by taking the finish order from race 1 and reversing the first 8 places, and the cars then take off from a standing start.
There is a gap of only one hour between the two races, but only 20 minutes are allowed for working on cars. This is sufficient for refuelling, tyre changes and adjusting car setups but there is little time for repairing major damage. Engines can only be changed once in every four race weekends, or a 10 place grid penalty is applied - as Andy experienced in Brands Hatch this season.
Points are awarded in the same scale as Formula One: 25 points for a win, 18 points for second, 15 for third, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 point down to tenth place.
Weight Handicaps
A complicated system of handicap weights are added to the specification weight of cars in order to level the playing field and encourage close racing.
These are calculated from the qualifying and fastest lap times of the best cars for each model on the previous race weekend. This is used to equalise the performance of different makes. The maximum weight handicap in 2010 is +60kg, which is a significant handicap for drivers on the limit.