[WTCC] Race of Japan Suzuka

[skells22]

next week the cars hit Suzuka and for the 1st time using the grand prix loop. Is there any Typhoon close by that could cause issues with this FIA event?

[Bramzel]

Finally the real track, I hope Coronel can pull his win out of the hat again!

[skells22]

Hendy Kwong will race a SEAT this weekend for Campos Racing

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by Bramzel

Finally the real track, I hope Coronel can pull his win out of the hat again!

In race 2. Qualifying is not his game.

[Andrew Abbott]

It's not got a great support package this weekend unfortunately, with only Super Taikyu supporting the WTCC. Hope it pulls a good crowd for Honda.

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by AndySpeed

It's not got a great support package this weekend unfortunately, with only Super Taikyu supporting the WTCC. Hope it pulls a good crowd for Honda.

Isn't Super Taikyu an endurance series? So there's less room for other races.

[Beryl]

Originally Posted by FIRE

Isn't Super Taikyu an endurance series? So there's less room for other races.

It is and it's as good of a support series as the WTCC could hope for in Japan. If I'm not mistaken, Super Taikyu is usually the main event for their race weekends.

[Rubio]

Oh, it's so brilliant to scrap live coverage of Q3 and show Watts instead. Thanks again Eurosport

[skells22]

normally when things are live Eurosport normally stays with the action and i have asked the question about that, I wonder if it was due to the ski season starting, at least its on now

[Beryl]

Congrats to Pechito on his world championship. First Argentine since Fangio to hold such a title.

For all of Muller's bad luck (that Martin Haven is constantly mentioning), Lopez has had the measure of him. Very much deserved.

[hondafan37]

Congratulations Pechito!!!

[Stefvh]

Congratulations Eurosport on missing the start...

[skells22]

on yesterday show watts instead of WTCC it was due to Eurosport International changing mind at last minute due to the red flag, , I wonder if whoever press the break button at the wrong time might get a MAJOR telling off

[Rubio]

Lopez really deserved this. His awesome superpole performances and agressive overtakings really made the difference to Muller.

Want to congratulate Borkovic too, great driving in Race 2

[bigbadhenry]

Originally Posted by Stefvh

Congratulations Eurosport on missing the start...

EURO SPORT useless allways have been. French crap

[S griffin]

Major cock up by Eurosport missing the start of race 2. How many times did we hear that DHL were in partnership with the WTCC. Also Haven said that Loeb pushed Muller into Valente when he didn't, but then again I probably have a bigger screen than those in the commentary box

Great champion in Lopez and great drive by Borkovic. Didn't realise he was so tall, probably Matt Neal height!

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by S griffin

.. great drive by Borkovic. Didn't realise he was so tall, probably Matt Neal height!

Borkovic is taller than Matt Neal - 2.07m, or 6ft 9.5in in old money

Good comparison video between him and Gianni Morbidelli
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNG4CpPEa8E

[Mies7337]

I was soooo fed up with Eurosport after missing the start at race 2..... How can you mess it up sooo bad. Finally they had the best Dutch commentator instead of the Belgian commentator, who is the worst ever. And then..........

[Fechna]

The races are more boring then ever... they messed up the regs completely.
At the start of the season it wasn't as apperent, since Citroen was able to dominate race 1 AND 2 and did alot of overtaking, but now with the other brands catching up it's clear how the aero has changed the racing. Several times cars couldn't hold their line in fast corners because they lost drag behind an opponent. No one would be happier to see Honda, Chevy and Lada to be competitive, but if you see Citroens speed in the qualifiing and race 1 they should have won race 2 as well. When Muller (who is an *** almost the size of Plato, given some statements about his performance this year) tries to overcome the fact, that understeering makes you stay behind an opponent at least a car length, he crashes in the hairpin. That's not an excuse, but shows how ridiculous it has become.

We all hope for a closer field next year, with at least the Hondas up to Citroens performance. But if that happens, we will hardly see any overtaking next year, alot of flying parts, and comatose races.

Then we'll be talking about DRS.

What a shame.

[werner]

Originally Posted by Mies7337

I was soooo fed up with Eurosport after missing the start at race 2..... How can you mess it up sooo bad. Finally they had the best Dutch commentator instead of the Belgian commentator, who is the worst ever. And then..........

Totally disagree. Peter Baert is by far the best commentator on the Dutch team. He is knowledgable, I think he has a nice voice to listen to, and what he says is almost always correct. Nelson Valkenburg however, although much better then he used to be, is more hysteric and more often wrong.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Touring cars don't need gimmicks to increase overtaking. Or at least they shouldn't. STCC use silhouette regs, BTCC uses NGTC, and both have a lot of action. The whole idea to use the news regs was to make the WTCC have a better image of faster looking cars to raise it's profile. It's not really achieved that but it's made the racing more predictable!

[Fechna]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

Touring cars don't need gimmicks to increase overtaking. Or at least they shouldn't.

Amen to that.

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

STCC use silhouette regs, BTCC uses NGTC, and both have a lot of action.

Disagree with STCC. Way worse racing then in the heydays of S2000. You're right on BTCC, but then the cars have the handling of springmattresses.

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

The whole idea to use the news regs was to make the WTCC have a better image of faster looking cars to raise it's profile. It's not really achieved that but it's made the racing more predictable!

Now is that a good thing or not?

[pimmy]

My two penneth:

Firstly, something I posted on another forum just after the Salzburgring round, which is still partially applicable to the weekend just gone:

How many times do we have to see stupid first lap crashes in this series? The driving standards have been appalling at times.

That safety car for gravel on the circuit was completely unnecessary, everybody had already been through it once and cleared a line, everyone knew it was there and it was at the slowest corner on the circuit. Health & safety and all that shite, I suppose.

Something else that has always bugged me is the way they deal with the national anthems on the podium. It's like they only realise to turn the volume up about a second or so after they start playing and they just get seem to get bored half way through and stop them again. Honestly, I find that a bit disrespectful. And WHY do they play the same anthem twice if the winning driver and manufacturer are the same nationality? Totally nonsensical.

As for the TV coverage, it's bad enough that race 2 was delayed until 9pm, but why show the viewers who won the race during an ad break BEFORE the race coverage has even finished? In who's mind is that a good idea? That's not the first time Eurosport have ****ed up like that, either. Last year they showed their Motorsports Weekend recap show, featuring the Porsche Supercup race from Silverstone, directly before their delayed coverage of said race. Now, since I recorded that race at the time, I saw the back end of the previous programme and spoilt the result for myself. What is the point?

The very odd thing with the WTCC is that it is contested by professional teams and (mostly) professional drivers, but it's run like a club series. But I suppose anything that's co-organised by the FIA and Eurosport is always going to be a bit ****.

As for this weekend in particular:

Just seen the races, which I couldn't watch on TV because of Eurosport's inability to do anything correctly. They had the wrong programme start time on the EPG, which meant my recording started half-way around lap 3. I deleted that and decided to watch the repeat in the afternoon, which started 15 minutes late because the wonderful sport of table tennis overran and even then they only showed race 2! So I quickly turned that off.

Remember, this is a WORLD Championship that Eurosport OWN, and they give it this pathetic excuse for coverage. I hope the incompetent moron responsible for this is now unemployed, they certainly deserve to be.

Race 1: lol Muller
Race 2: **** you Muller

John Filippi could try smiling, couldn't he.

I'm happy for Lopez, the best driver won the title.

[Mies7337]

The answer to the overtaking problem is very simple, I think. Make the brakes worse. Drivers need to brake earlier, which increases the chance of overtaking.
I absolutely agree with the fact that the new rules have ruined the action in the WTCC, the old rules were perfect, at lest 60% of the WTCC races were absolutely awesome. Maybe the BTCC can beat that, but that's it.
Lopez has shown that he is the best touring car driver at this moment. It doesn't matter in which class, give him a good car and he's the champion.

[pimmy]

I think the cars are a bit too aero-dependent. The field does become strung out quite quickly and some drivers have mentioned getting understeer in dirty air, which shouldn't really be an issue in touring cars.