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. At the request of interested manufacturers, it was changed to the WTCC beginning from the 2005 season. It is now considered the third most important FIA championship after Formula One and the World Rally Championship.
championship rules
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: 9 in Europe, 1 in the Americas and 1 in the East. See the calendar and results section for full details and links.
cars and teams
Cars directly and officially supported by manufacturers are known as 'works' cars. 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 five 320si E90 cars engineered by three different race teams, each under national umbrellas: 2 cars by Schnitzer as 'BMW Team Germany'; 2 cars by Ravaglia as 'BMW Team Spain/Italy' and 1 by RBM as 'BMW Team UK'. See car spotting for how to tell them apart. Similarly, SEAT have 5 cars racing as 'SEAT Sport': 3 of these are run by the Spanish SEAT Sport factory and the other 2 by Oreca of France. Chevrolet have three works cars under in a team 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, Alfas and SEATs. In total there are over 20 cars on the grid, making WTCC one of the largest and healthiest of the international motorsport championships.
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 BMW Team Germany's Jörg Müller, who was runner-up to Andy last year and has a great record of race wins. The other BMW Team Germany driver, Augusto Farfus Jr had two very promising seasons with Alfa before landing the BMW seat.
Alex Zanardi of BMW Team Italy is an inspiration to everyone because he races with hand controls after losing both legs in a 2001 single seater accident - Andy describes being on the 2005 Oschersleben podium after Alex's first WTCC win as one of his most emotional moments in motorsport. Felix Porteiro of BMW Team Spain is new to WTCC this season from a distingusihed single seater background.
Besides fellow BMW drivers, Andy's main championship rivals again come from SEAT's five car 'Spanish Armada': Frenchman Yvan Muller is a former BTCC champions and plays the game in the British style. The pan-EU combination from SEAT's factory are Spaniard Jordi Gene and Italian Gabriele Tarquini who have both won WTCC with the current car. The SEAT debutant is former Champ Car pilot Mexican Michel Jourdain, with and ex-F1 driver Tiago Montiero of Portugal joining the team when it returns to Europe.
The three car Chevrolet team prepared by Britain's RML are in the third year of their development program and were regularly taking on the fight in a spectacular 2006 season. Swiss driver Alain Menu and Brit Rob Huff served tours of duty with distinction in BTCC, whilst Italian Nicola Larini has significant F1 experience.
race weekends
Each weekend includes timed free practice and a qualifying session on the Saturday, and 2 races on the Sunday.
The grid for race 1 of the weekend is decided by the quickest lap times set by each car in the qualifying session. An innovation in 2007 is that race 1 will be a rolling start. The grid race 2 is set taking the finish order from race 1 and reversing the first 8 places.
The other change of format for 2007 is a gap of one hour between the two races, although 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. Unlike Formula One, there are no restrictions on changing engines between race weekends.
Points are awarded in the same scale as Formula One: 10 points for a win, 8 points for second, 6 for third, 5,4,3,2 and 1 point down to eighth 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 placings in previous races and in the championship overall, as set out in the WTCC rulebook. The maximum weight handicap in 2007 has been halved to +40kg compared to the draconian 2006 (+80kg!), although this is still a significant handicap for drivers on the limit.