[WTCC] 2015 WTCC news & rumours

[Hawkwood]

Originally Posted by redshoes

According to Midweek Motorsport / Radio Le Mans, Robert Kubica will joins Sebastian Loeb Racing next year and will compete in both WTCC and WRC.

I'd love to see this happen. It'd be great to have him back circuit racing again.

[FIRE]

Would be great. He is wasting his time in rally.

[Rubio]

http://www.touringcartimes.com/2014/...the-2015-wtcc/

Turkington or Priaulx possibly to drive for Munnich? This silly season becomes more silly every minute

[JorritVD]

Originally Posted by Rubio

http://www.touringcartimes.com/2014/...the-2015-wtcc/

Turkington or Priaulx possibly to drive for Munnich? This silly season becomes more silly every minute

I would love to see Turkington in the WTCC. Alsways been a big fan from him. He could attack the Citroëns, and with speed I think he is the same as Lopez. But Priaulx is a bit weird. Does that mean he won't be a BMW factory driver anymore?

[DS"]

Priaulx to Münnich...urm, what? I doubt that he'd throw away his job as a factory driver in order to race for a private team. Yes, the WTCC is his series but unfortunately, BMW has chosen to completely ignore their past in the WTCC. I mean, it's really sad how BMW omits their STW/S2000 years by now, when they're looking back at their touring car history. BMW's official history makes it look like there was nothing between the M3 E30 and the M3 E92 in DTM, which is very sad.

[Go_For_Pole]

If WTCC races don't clash with Priaulx BMW program then why not?

[Metzo]

if Bennani really leaves Proteam and goes to SLR, i believe D'aste will return and take the seat at Proteam.

[Mies7337]

Priaulx and Turkington, both very good touring car drivers. I'd like to see both of them in a Münnich car. Rene himself might not be the fastest driver (actually, he's the slowest), but he is a cool guy to start this career as a driver with a professional team and give big names a chance at his team.
It's good to see big touring car names back in the silly season, like d'Aste, Rydell, Priaulx, Turkington and Dahlgren. The WTCC deserves drivers like this back in the championship.
I believe that ORECA is a very professional team, so we'll se the Ladas up front next year. And I hope that RML can do a good job in modifying the current Cruzes. Maybe Citroen can actually expect some competiton next year.

[jsmee]

I don't want to see Turkington in the WTCC... Stay in the BTCC Colin where you belong!!

[Spanner monkey]

Do you mean to say Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro are not quick enough... Right...

Neither are the JAS Team... Maybe time Honda gave the job to Dynamics or Prodrive?

[porsche962fan]

Originally Posted by jsmee

I don't want to see Turkington in the WTCC... Stay in the BTCC Colin where you belong!!

yes PLATO should go there instead , difference for him is he will be quickly b***h slapped for his antics no favoritism like BTCC

[Rubio]

http://hosszabbitas.hu/wtcc/naptar-2...ifold-katar-be

Interesting info from WTCC Blog. The 2015 calendar should be released tomorrow, and the changes include new rounds in Losail, Vila Real, Motegi and Buriram. We are about to lose both Macau and Suzuka

Well, I'm not sure about Losail, the track is hard for overtaking, not the best among other Middle East circuits with floodlights

[Bramzel]

Motegi is cool, Buriram reminds me of the Okayama / TI Aida Circuit. Vila Real looks cool as well, so with 3 nice additions I'll give Losail the benefit of the doubt

Somehow I'm less dissapointed by Macau and Suzuka going off the list than expected.

[GusGasfuss]

Originally Posted by jsmee

I don't want to see Turkington in the WTCC... Stay in the BTCC Colin where you belong!!

Yes, BTCC is his home territory, but i think Colin is keen on showing his impressive talent in comparison with the best touring car drivers in the world.
Of course BTCC has very talented drivers, but most of them are not well known outside of Britain. And i believe, that next year will be even more arguing about rear-wheel-drive...

I really hope, that Rene Münnich will not waste his talent (which he has in business and maybe managing) and drive himself. He should take two talented drivers for the cars, maybe they can bring also some little sponsorship with them.

And if there is no clash with BTCC, he can have Turkington & Morbidelli. Would be a good team. With lots of possible points!!!!

Priaulx would be an idiot, if he choose private Chevy against works BMW!!!! And i don't think, they will put Priaulx down...

[Mies7337]

Maybe Münnich is buying another Chevy this year, to put himself in one, combined with Priaulx and Turkington (or a German friend like Winkelhock or Basseng). Just like he did in 2013 with 3 SEATs. RML is producing more Chevys, right?

[Metzo]

i'd guess campos will enter more cruzes but not münnich.

[JorritVD]

Originally Posted by Mies7337

Maybe Münnich is buying another Chevy this year, to put himself in one, combined with Priaulx and Turkington (or a German friend like Winkelhock or Basseng). Just like he did in 2013 with 3 SEATs. RML is producing more Chevys, right?

Easy talking from you. You need the budget for it. A TC1 Cruze chassis only costs already 450.000 euro (Tom Coronel), and that is even without the engine. So it's more expensive than an GT3 car. The S2000 Leon was a lot cheaper, so it was also easier to run a third car. No wonder Morbidelli was running with the CAMOZZI sponsorship on his car, which also was on his Audi from the EuroV8 series (so it looks like he had to pay for the drive). The season budget needed for these new cars are twice as much, but probably even more than that.

BTW here are more costs from this article
http://www.touringcartimes.com/2014/...roughout-2015/

- The WTCC’s series organisers explain the cost of a TC1 rolling chassis with engine is currently around 500,000 EUR, with the factory teams having spent even more in testing and development,
-while V8 Supercars’ Car Of The Future (COTF) are approximately 650,000 EUR for the car and engine.
- The British Touring Car Championship’s Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) formula has a price cap of £200,000 (250,000 EUR) for each rolling chassis, with another 32k EUR for rental of the TOCA engine, or they can build their own.
- While the Solution-F formula adopted by the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship has been among the cheapest of the current formulae at around 125,000 EUR for both the car and engine,
- The price cap for the [TC3 ]cars is 100,000 EUR

So a TC3 Leon is about 4-5 times cheaper than a TC1 car, while they almost look the same, but also go almost as fast.

[GusGasfuss]

We saw this already in ETCC, as sometimes the Seat Leon Supercopa were among the S2000 cars (especially in the wet).

Of course you don't need a 500.000 Euro racecar to have nice and close races.
Maybe its easier with much less money to feel free and drive fast...

But i am not sure, if 70/90.000 Euro for a TC3 car can be reached??? Some street models of these cars reach that easily (of course with a lot of options)

[JorritVD]

Originally Posted by GusGasfuss

But i am not sure, if 70/90.000 Euro for a TC3 car can be reached??? Some street models of these cars reach that easily (of course with a lot of options)

The Leon Cup Race is already being sold for that price, althoug they have a lot of those cars on track, so the price can be lower.

[Rubio]

I wonder what is the heck is with that 2 month' break between Vila Real and (possibly) Motegi? Really strange, considering they don't have to go to South America in August

[helmat]

Originally Posted by Rubio

I wonder what is the heck is with that 2 month' break between Vila Real and (possibly) Motegi? Really strange, considering they don't have to go to South America in August

I would assume the cars travel by ship from a harbour near Vila Real (Porto?) to Japan, that will take quite some time
At least there's only one 2 month brake during this season, that's an improvement from the last seasons.

I think it's a pity that Macau is gone, but apparantly they really tried to keep it until the last moment, looks like TC3 had more money in their pockets.
Apart from that the calendar additions look good. Vila Real appears to be a fun track, Buriram looks nice as well, Nordschleife is awesome. Just not sure about Losail, but they deserve a chance, if they are indeed planning a night race there it could be an interesting addition.

[Rubio]

Originally Posted by helmat

I think it's a pity that Macau is gone, but apparantly they really tried to keep it until the last moment, looks like TC3 had more money in their pockets.
.

Though it seems that there is lot of investment behind TC3, I rather believe commercial reasons are behind - speaking from marketing point of view it's even better for WTCC - first, they get good time slot (mid-day in Europe) which never happened in Macau and i believe TV audiences were poor. Second, WTCC was never the main event in Macau despite being the world championship, they didn't use main pit garages and so on. Shame of course.

It seems Eurosport was trying to find a unique place in Middle East to finish the season, but F1 already has Abu-Dhabi, WEC has Sakhir, so Losail was the only option.

BTW, Buriram also has floodlights.

Hey, we've got Nordshleife, so still not bad. Plus I also want to see Vila Real, maybe that track will compensate for Macau

[rustyfan]

That has to be one of the saddest looking season schedules I've ever seen.

[Metzo]

Originally Posted by rustyfan

That has to be one of the saddest looking season schedules I've ever seen.

i agree

[Andrew Abbott]

Originally Posted by rustyfan

That has to be one of the saddest looking season schedules I've ever seen.

Why? Because they aren't visiting any Formula 1 circuits? I think it's not bad at all, it just needs a UK race and Italy as well.

Interesting that both TC3 and WTCC are going to Buriram in 2015...