Which drivers belong into a real World Touring Car Championship?

[duke_toaster]

The UN define Russia as being in Europe, so it is in Europe as far as I'm concerned - it's also in the Council of Europe. Interestingly, some countries in UN defined Western and Central Asia have historical links with Europe to the extent that they are in UEFA, the EBU (ergo Eurovision) and the Council of Europe.

[helterskelter]

If you wanna be technical about it, it is widely conceived that the Urals divide Europe and Asia, a part of the Russian Federation being included. Certainly you can't say that a guy who comes from Vladivostok (in front of Japan) is a European... He certainly is an Asian...

[Jacob Black]

I don't know if you're aware, but taking everything completely literally and not being able to recognise a little bit of hyperbole is a sign of autism. Of course, I wasn't speaking literally, but for most of the world, Russia is not very far removed from Europe, and the WTCC is still not a genuine world championship.
I love the WTCC, don't get me wrong, I do, but I think that with the opportunity and the money, a lot of the current guys would be displaced by drivers from the southern hemisphere.
I definately think the WTCC safety car driver is ****house though! :P

[stedevil]

Originally Posted by Tourer

I'm with Jacob on this - the so called WTCC is the ETCC renamed. Doesn't mean that its not a worthwhile competition but to refer to it as a "world" touring car championship is a joke.

Well, WTCC is literally the ETCC renamed as they started visiting more far off places. But ETCC -> WTCC is an evolution, not a revolution, and to me it seems they are working with the intent of slowly making it more and more World. Eg recently they added Marocko-Africa and we even saw Bennani that might reappear as a driver. But they also have other, more pressing, issues to tackle, 3½ manufacturers are just not good enough. More international brands would also likely bring with it more international drivers.

[helterskelter]

I guess something will move in 2011. The series has to go through this tough transition year in 2010, and then some other manufacturers should appear with the end (hopefully) of the financial crisis and the changes in the rules that should make entering the championship much easier. Subaru and some other Japanes constructors are rumoured to be interested, even in making a local Touring Car Series! (stedevil, sorry for Sweden, but then I guess the great Jtcc championship would have to change its name in order to be different from the Japanese series! )
Of course WTCC is not as 'World' as Formula One, but remember it's a very young championship! It's not even 10 years old, and, like stedevil correctly said, it's expanding more and more. We should have Russia and US in 2011 (probably US in 2012) and, IMO, Lada is still an extra-european manufacturer, as it's based in Togliatti which is absolutely in Asia. Anyway, Jacob Black, don't get us wrong, we were just joking I hope you're ok with that, sorry if that hurt you.
As for the drivers of the Southern Emisphere beating some Wtcc drivers, I have no doubts that there are some great talents. I'm also sure that some of our drivers would beat them at home, given the necessary experience in the championship. Talents are everywhere in the world, it'd be grat to have some kind of one-off World Cup (sort of like the ETC Cup), with cars completely different compared to the ones each driver has raced in, and see who's the best. A one-make cup would be great, don't you think so?

[stedevil]

Originally Posted by Jacob Black

I definately think the WTCC safety car driver is ****house though! :P

Well, they didnt use to have a permanent one, each track provided one of their on. After what happened recently I think they already have appointed a permanent one...

PS Togliatti is still located some 500km WEST of the Ural mountains, which means it's firmly on the European side. Even the minority part of Russian Federation on European soil is enough to make it by far the largest country in Europe.

[werner]

A truly global championship, with teams, races ánd drivers from several continents is very hard to accomplisch. They don't even manage it in F1, where all the teams are based in Europe.

In touringcars it is even harder, because you don't have the the funds to pay for to much transportation costs. In F1 they can afford to ship a few pieces on a chartered cargo-plane, because it will pay off in terms of media-attention when you have a car on the grid instead of in the box, in WTCC, it does not.
Also, you have to find a formula that will suit every continent, and there is none. In Australia, they don't like the relatively small cars of the WTCC, but European manufacturers would rather use them, because they want to sell them.
Last but not least, any formula would fit other drivers. As said, for drivers like Muller, Giovanardi or Priaulx it will be hard to race big heavy monsters, and for Ozzies it might be harder to convert themselves to race in FWD-driven smaller hatchbacks.
There is already a sort of race inwich drivers drive different cars at the end of the year: the race of champions. It's very Mickey Mouse though.

[awrb]

Originally Posted by stedevil

PS Togliatti is still located some 500km WEST of the Ural mountains, which means it's firmly on the European side. Even the minority part of Russian Federation on European soil is enough to make it by far the largest country in Europe.

I thought the teams was now being run out of the Netherlands, which is pretty European.

[stedevil]

Originally Posted by awrb

I thought the teams was now being run out of the Netherlands, which is pretty European.

Togliatti is not a team, it's a town, which has been mentioned as a potential WTCC race location. So the point was, a race there will not add a non European event to the calendar.

[awrb]

Originally Posted by stedevil

Togliatti is not a team, it's a town, which has been mentioned as a potential WTCC race location. So the point was, a race there will not add a non European event to the calendar.

Ah, got you. I thought this was about where the Lada's were based. My mistake

[helterskelter]

But anyway the hometown of the manufacturer counts towards the nationality of the cars entered, not the team, otherwise Renault F1 would be considered as an English team, not French! Furthermore, most of the crew is Russian. Chevy is still an American team, though RML is of course British... I don't know anything about Russian geography, so I'll trust stedevil. Anyway, I find that a Russian manufacturer is not as European as you would consider Alfa Romeo or Renault... And you do reach another market that the championship is not exposed to, which is the huge Russian market.
As for the ROC, I don't even call it a race. It's interesting and fun, but in a race like that, one against one, so much can happen. I was talking about a track whose choice is 'random' and in which all the drivers race in the same car, a proper race. World Touring Masters Cup, or something... Not sure about the marketing potential of it, but surely interesting for the fans!

[werner]

I've seen some footage of the Australian champoinship on Youtube recently. (This guy has integral races on his channel) and I must say, that Jamie Whincup definitely belongs to the best drivers of the world, and probably some other bloke driving around down under would do fine to.
The good thing from the Ozzies championship is that you have to be a really good athlete to perform well. Races are between 100 and 250km for one driver, and there are 2 enduros of 500 and 1000km where you team up with another driver. And you do that in a hot car, that is not easy to operate; heavy braking, heavy shifting, heavy throttle etc. Any untrained gentlemandriver would be exausted after a few laps. And I also don't think that there are a lot of woman around that would be able to be very competitive.