What will the WTCC look like in two years?

We’re at that point again during the season where rumours are abound of various manufacturers set to join the WTCC in coming years, but for once the rumours have a lot more weight behind them in previous years – so will Chevrolet have a lot more to fight against by 2013?

Going into the 2011 season, on the face of it, this season looked bleak. BMW was withdrawing to being just an independent supplier. To what extent BMW were going to leave the teams to themselves wasn’t known at the time, but now we know – which is pretty much completely alone.

The six SEAT cars have no support from SEAT at all. In fact, they’re not even officially SEATs anymore according to the technical regulations, they run to national regulations as SUNRED cars since the change to a SUNRED & Lehmann developed engine with no funding or sign-off from SEAT.. SEAT Sporting Director Jaime Puig hasn’t been seen in the WTCC since Macau last year, so SUNRED too are also left to their own devices.

So we wereleft with Chevrolet and Volvo. Two manufacturers with two completely different approaches to this season. Chevrolet’s is full attack, as though they’re fighting an invisible enemy of equal strength – they see it, they’re afraid of it – the viewers don’t, and all they viewers see for the most part is three Chevrolets completely dominating the championship. Chevrolet’s approach is important though, as that invisible enemy looks certain to take shape by next season.

Volvo don’t even dare embarrass a sponsor by putting its name on the car where people will see it. There are a few there, hidden around the sides, but first you’re made to see ‘Volvo Evaluation Season’ sprawled down the side, pleading to not judge us yet. If they were having a bad season, you’d say that’s there just to make excuses, but considering how competitive the lone C30 has been, in particular since joining the turbo club from Brno, you’d probably now say they’re underplaying how much of a threat they actually are.

Still, they’re not able to beat Chevrolet just yet. In their first two races with the new 4-cylinder 1.6 litre turbocharged engine, they were carrying the same weight as the Chevrolet Cruzes, and were seconds off the pace at Brno and Porto – though of course the team and driver were both new to the tracks and new to the car of course.

Chevrolet, with their engine now almost already a year old in terms of development, quite predictably are dominating the championship. Arguably, the 2011 season is actually closer in terms of the title fight than 2010. Last year, Yvan Muller at this point had broken away from Rob Huff and Alain Menu by a small margin at Chevrolet. No greater than the same margin Huff had just three race meetings ago, but with the ever present threats of Andy Priaulx and Gabriele Tarquini, despite Priaulx equipped with outdated machinery and Tarquini short of manufacturer support, the call came early last year for the Chevrolet drivers to band together and ensure that Muller became the 2010 champion.

This season, there’s no such luck for any of the Chevrolet drivers. None of them are getting that clean break – they all know one of them is going to be the champion.

With six points the gap between the top two, the equivalent of just a seventh place finish with the current points system, the title fight is completely open between Rob Huff and Yvan Muller as we head to Valencia, the final round of the European part of the season. Muller’s got the experience, he’s already won the championship twice before, but Huff has the greater determination, chasing his first championship title since winning the British SEAT Cupra Championship in 2003, which is where he won the prize drive with RML for the 2004 British Touring Car Championship season.

Whoever wins this season will carry the No.1 at Chevrolet in a year where we’re likely to see another two manufacturers taking the fight to the US manufacturer in 2012.

The first fight is surely to come from Volvo. The Chinese-owned Swedish manufacturer’s evaluation season has far exceeded anyone’s expectations. 31-year-old Robert Dahlgren has been learning up the tracks very quickly, and the team’s approach has been one of all out attack and ‘damn the points, we’ll worry about that next year’. The new engine, despite limited testing in comparison to the RML Chevrolet, has got the pace and it’ll be a surprise if the little C30 hasn’t taken a podium before the season is over, if not a race victory.

Next on the likely to be joining the series list is Ford, former owners of Volvo of course up until last year. Littlehampton-based Arena Motorsport have been charged with developing the new Ford Focus in the British Touring Car Championship this season, built to Super 2000 regulations (despite the different regulations coming in the UK from 2013). The car has shown to be quick, but is still chasing its first win in a tough development year in the BTCC. The team’s previous car, which with the controversial LPG turbo engine almost carried them to the title last year, is currently leading the standings with top independent team Motorbase Performance, demonstrating the great work that Mountune Racing, the selected engine partners of Ford and Arena for the WTCC programme have achieved with turbocharged engines.

Also in the wings, rumours continue to persist that manufacturers from Japan are looking to get involved. Although Toyota have retreated away to focus on the Le Mans Series, Honda and Subaru have also been linked with potential entries.

Subaru, mostly famous for developing their image in rallying, were hotly tipped to be joining the fray until the disaster in Japan in March. Since then, everything has gone quiet, but a recent test for the Chevrolet team for Sébastien Loeb will only re-ignite speculation, especially as the team which was linked with the Subaru deal is none other than Belgian outfit Kronos Racing, which took Loeb to the 2006 World Rally Championship when Citroën ‘officially’ sat out the championship that year.

Next is Honda. One of the most prevalent brands in touring car racing in the world when you look at Canada, America and Asia – and has been in the BTCC in some form or another for over two decades with teams run by Prodrive, Arena, West Surrey Racing and more recently Team Dynamics. In the WTCC, JAS Motorsport, N-Technology and the Argentinean Equipo Petrobras teams have all courted Honda in recent years, but now 2010 BTCC Manufacturers champions Team Dynamics are trying to grab Honda’s attention to go to the WTCC. With a new Civic on the horizon, the British team, whose 2010 Honda Civic is also leading the standings in the Asian Touring Car Series, could also be in the WTCC, bringing in another manufacturer to replace the void left by BMW and SEAT.

Chevrolet, Ford, Volvo, Subaru and Honda – could very well be a very exciting 2013!