The ultimate WTCC 2009 preview

This weekend the FIA World Touring Car Championship will enter its fifth season as the 24 car strong field heads to Brazil and Curitiba. For the first time since its introduction in 2005 Andy Priaulx is not the reigning champion. Instead Frenchman and SEAT-driver Yvan Muller is the chased one. TouringCarTimes takes a look what can be expected from this season.

SEAT – The Champions

Yvan Muller and SEAT with the help of diesel-power finally broke Andy Priaulxs run of four consecutive titles last year in a season they very much controlled. For this season WTCC has decreased the turbo pressure in the cars in an attempt to make the field more level between turbo and non-turbo car.

Not surprisingly, SEAT feels it has been reduced too much and it remains to be seen if FIA has managed the tricky balance between turbo and non-turbos. Expect the SEAT’s too have less power but most likely continue to be competitive. The Leon is still in the early stages of it’s development cycle and there is still more to come from the chassis. SEAT will be up there, the torque from the turbo-powered diesel engines will continue to be their upper hand.

The driver line-up is unchanged with Yvan Muller, Rickard Rydell, Gabriele Tarquini, Jordi Gené and Tiago Monteiro leading the Spanish armada. Expect Yvan Muller to lead this camp, he has proven to be quick as well as consistent over a season.

Rickard Rydell will probably be quick from time to time and with a competitive SEAT it would be a surprise if the experienced Swede would not get a win or two under his belt. Last season he made a few mistakes at crucial points in the season that put him away from the title battle, if he can eliminate these Rydell could be a threat to the position as top dog at SEAT and WTCC-title challenger. Rydell is also in his second year with his new race engineer and they are reported to be working very well together so this should also strengthen his chances this year.

Gabriele Tarquini is likewise quick and the Italian veteran finished runner-up last year. There is still life in the old dog and if he could get a good start to his season, that will be the momentum that could make him a real title-challenger this year. Jordi Gené will probably be more of a support act with some solid finishes but nothing spectacular.

More spectacular could Tiago Monteiro be but question marks must be raised for his committement this year. As well as racing full time for SEAT Monteiro is also a new team owner in GP2, something that will take time and focus. But if there is one driver that can combine roles such as this, it is Monteiro. He took two victories last year, his two first in WTCC and could very well improve on this record.

Outside the factory team Tom Coronol is the most exciting SEAT-driver. In his petrol-driven Leon he has proven now and then to be a threat to the manufacturer teams and last year he even pulled a win out of the hat with a mixture of rain tyres and slicks on a drying track. With the diesel engines being pegged back a little, his chances of upsetting the factory squad has increased. One question mark is the teams financial budget, it was for a long time unclear if they had the budget for another season in WTCC but it seems they have worked that out.

BMW – Out for revenge

Ever since ETCC BMW had been the car the beat in the series and Andy Priaulx made this his own little playground with four consecutive titles until he last year finally caved in and saw himself beaten. For this year, BMW is back for revenge after having lost both titles to SEAT.

The line-up at BMW is pretty much unchanged. Jörg Muller and Augusto Farfus Jr continues at Team Germany while Andy Priaulx stays at BMW Team UK, again a one-car effort although with support from BMW Motorsport. Alessandro Zanardi and Sergio Hernandez completes the Munich line-up driving for Team Italy-Spain.

BMW comes with a face-lift of the very fast E90 but underneath there has not been much development of this car. If the SEAT:s are still in their early stages of development, the BMW:s are in the late stages. Refined, fast and reliable and now with a less power disadvantage to the SEAT diesels they will be back at the top this year.

We expect Andy Priaulx to once again lead the charge for BMW. He is not always the quickest but the combination of speed, race craft and consistency always puts him up at the top every weekend. But expect him to face harder competition from Augusto Farfus Jr.

The Brazilian has settled in well at BMW and is probably the fastest BMW-driver over one lap. Some unnecessary mistakes prevented him from a title challenge last year, five races where he didn’t score a point proved too costly in this tight championship. Farfus must improve on this and if he manages that he is set for probably his best chance yet to be world champion.

When it comes to Jörg Muller you should never count him out of contention. On his day he is up there with the best but he still makes mistakes or gets involved in incidents one should expect him to be able to avoid with all his experience. In the Italian-Spanish squad Zanardi continues, the popular Italian that is fast but needs to up his game if he is going to be more than a challenger for the occasional win. The only new driver to this year’s BMW line-up is Zanardis team mate Sergio Hernandez. He steps up to a factory car as the reigning Independents champion and maybe he could prove to be the missing piece in this team that has struggled to find a consistent team mate for Zanardi to keep for a whole season.

Chevrolet – It’s all new

The last two seasons has been a constant improvement for Chevrolet who has taken their Lacetti to the winners circle more and more frequently. In 2007 Alain Menu won more races than anyone else and last year Rob Huff were probably the most improved driver in the field when he got a third place overall in the end.

Building on that Chevrolet and Ray Mallock enters the all new Cruze for this year. Early tests shows it handles better and is more driveable than the old car and should be faster around the corners. But the added weight and a wider body has on the other hand affected straight-line speed, one of the strengths with the old Lacetti. The team faces a challenge in getting this new car quickly up to speed to challenge BMW and SEAT again. It’s probably realistic to expect Chevrolet to improve in the second half of the season.

While SEAT and BMW has five cars each Chevrolet will continue with only a three-car factory team. This is also something that could slow down the development of the new car. With a all-new car they have decided to keep their driver line-up unchanged and we will once again see Alain Menu, Rob Huff and Nicola Larini in the Chevy colours.

Rob Huff was a little bit of last year’s revelation, he improved on his qualifying and suddenly had a much better life on race day. That put him up to an impressive third in the overall standings and if he can keep this going he could once again be the main challenger for Chevrolet. But with a new car to develop the experience of Alain Menu will once again come into play. Nicola Larini has proven to be fast but is inconsistent from time to time. Last year he finished outside the top ten and that gives him something to prove this year.

Lada in – Honda out

Honda has scaled down on their motorsport programmes for this season and WTCC is no exception. They withdraw their support for the Honda programme this winter and that leaves the field without any semi-factory Accords.

But as Honda steps out Lada steps up and will run a factory team this year. Jaap van Lagen, Kirill Ladygin and Viktor Shapovalov will drive the three Lada 110 that has shown signs of improvement in winter testing. But the improve from a low level of performance and they are more likely to just make up the numbers on the grid rather than mount any serious point scoring challenges.

But with the odd day of rain and unpredictability and a few street races in the mix could create the opportunity to make a Russian point or two.

New regulations – It’s a weight issue

We have already mentioned the decreased turbo pressure for the diesel SEAT:s as one of the new regulation changes for this year. Another big change is the much critized penalty weight system. For this year success ballast is gone and replaced by something called compensation weight. Instead of adding most weight to the most successful driver from the last round, weight will now be added across the board to each model of car.

The system is based on calculations of average speed and lap times and success from the previous round. This change will now stop the best drivers in the respective teams to be slowed down in relation to their team mates. Instead it will be more like DTM where all the cars of the same model will carry the same penalty weight.

It remains to be seen how this will play out but it’s likely that point scoring consistency weekend in and weekend out will still be the key to winning the title, and we can probably expect a title decider at the very last round.

Other news for this year are an increased number of street circuits. The championship returns to Porto and there is also a new street rae in Morocco added which also will see WTCC race in Africa for the first time. The number of street circuits is now up to four for this year.

Summary – Who will be the top dog?

Yvan Muller and Andy Priaulx have to start out as favourites to lead the SEAT and BMW camps respectively this year. Gabriele Tarquini and Augusto Farfus Jr will with their speed challenge their respective team mates and we expect these four to be this year’s title challengers.

Rickard Rydell and Jörg Muller will also be there or there about and with a good start and some momentum they could make it a six-way fight for the title.

Drivers who have something extra to prove and have to improve on their game is Jordi Gené and Tiago Monteiro for SEAT, Zanardi at BMW and Nicola Larini at Chevrolet. They are all drivers that are up there with the best on their days but need more of those days to make them into realistic title candidates.

For Chevrolet this will be a tough season with an all new car to develop up against well developed and fast competitors. If Chevrolet can get the all new Cruze quickly up to speed, Rob Huff and Alain Menu has shown they can be the odd contender at the top. Maybe the new car is what is needed to take Chevrolet from the outside contender into the third title-challenger in WTCC.

All in all it looks promising for a another exciting and nail-biting WTCC season. Even with a new weight system we can expect a title fight where points every weekend and a climax at the final round at Macau in November will decide this years World Champion.