WTCC series boss explains reduction of 2017 calendar

The 2017 World Touring Car Championship calendar has been reduced to just ten races, principally due to budget reasons according to series boss Francois Ribeiro.

“We’ve canvassed our teams and the general consensus is 10 events works well from a budget perspective,” said Ribeiro to TouringCarTimes.

”This way we can also deliver a less congested calendar, which helps running costs, while maintaining a good spread of events across four continents throughout the season in line with the requirements of our broadcast and commercial partners and stakeholders.”

The reduction to ten races means that gone from the calendar are Moscow, Paul Ricard and Slovakia Ring.

”We enjoyed a good relationship with the team at Moscow Raceway and the races there were always entertaining. With Lada focusing on its national motorsport activities in 2017, we decided together with WTCC stakeholders not to run anymore at Moscow Raceway next season. I hope we will get back there someday. However, while the WTCC won’t be visiting Paul Ricard and Slovakia Ring, we have a strong relationship with those two circuits which are home to the FIM Endurance World Championship, also promoted by Eurosport Events, and we particularly look forward to the inaugural 8 Hours of Slovakia Ring next June,” said Ribeiro.

To further reduce costs for 2017, all WTCC events will be held over two days except for the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Friday testing will be removed with Free Practice 1 and 2 instead being extended from 30 to 45 minutes.