SEAT rule out WTCC return in 2014, focus on single-make series

SEAT has ruled out a return to the World Touring Car Championship in the immediate future, and instead will place its focus on single-make series, possibly a new SEAT León Supercopa championship with the new León Cup Racer, which was debuted earlier this year at the Salzburgring.

The prototype León Cup Racer, built to the spirit of the new FIA WTCC Super 2000 Appendix J 2014 regulations was displayed at Salzburg and has since been testing and promoted by the Spanish marque; but it’s now clear the car will form the base for a new SEAT Supercopa-style car rather than a WTCC contender, with SEAT Sport Director Jaime Puig ruling out developing a car for the WTCC.

“There’s no plan. I would like to, but this car has a two-litre engine,” said Puig. “Also to come into the WTCC now against Citroën, you would need a proper (bespoke) car for the WTCC. We have already been World Champions, but to be again against the new competition will be very expensive.”

When the WTCC switched to the 1.6 litre turbocharged engine in 2011, SEAT had already officially withdrawn from the Championship at the end of the 2009 season, though the customer Martorell-based SUNRED Engineering team chose to develop their own unofficial engine for the 2011 season.

Renewed interest from SEAT in 2012 with the Lukoil Racing Team, with drivers Gabriele Tarquini and Aleksei Dudukalo, saw a new engine developed by ORECA for the Spanish manufacturer which has given the León WTCC a temporary new lease of life, but SEAT’s focus is now heading to back to national and European-based Supercopa series as the WTCC continues to expand into markets where SEAT isn’t present.

“We will try to do a León Cup, it’s not confirmed, but we are working on it. We need to be in mainland Europe, that means Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK,” added Puig.

“The León Supercopa has been a great success for us. It could also be used for the ETCC (FIA European Touring Car Cup). If we could do some races (with a Supercopa series) with the WTCC that would be perfect but as long as they’re ones that don’t clash with the ETCC, so the customers can buy one car and race in both.”

The cost of the León Cup Racer is projected to be around 70,000 EUR with 330bhp delivered by the 2.0 litre turbocharged TFSI engine. The outgoing and newer Super 2000 rules put a car in the 300-400k EUR bracket, not including the engine.

SEAT’s change of focus is a minor blow to the WTCC, which is set to feature just three manufacturers in 2014, just one more than this season with the addition of Citroën, though the number of new cars on the grid could break into double figures with continued speculation that RML Group are to produce upwards of six cars for the Championship. Those cars will be based on the three-time championship winning Chevrolet Cruze, running a development of the RML 1.6 litre Global Racing Engine, which will principally be aimed at customer programmes such as that of bamboo-engineering and the Tuenti Racing Team.