Preview: 2012 World Touring Car Championship

We look at the drivers and teams competing in this year’s ninth FIA World Touring Car Championship, and how the season is likely to play out as Yvan Muller goes for this fourth title, racing again with Chevrolet.

Chevrolet have won the World Touring Car Championship for the last two years and they’re certainly favourites to repeat the feat this season. As the only fully committed manufacturer entry for 2012, they have the most developed car and engine package and strongest driver line-up, but despite that it’s less likely they will have it quite as much their own way as they did last year.

Chevrolet will face an increased level of competition, from lighter BMWs from ROAL, Engstler & Zengõ, and the flotilla of SEATs with support from the Spanish manufacturer, as well as the return of Ford to the Championship with 2010 BTCC independents’ champions Arena Motorsport.

Last year the fight between Yvan Muller and Rob Huff was the closest inter-team battle that Chevrolet have had, whilst Alain Menu was equally as fast and looked to be Huff’s main threat after the first two races, trailing by just one point as they left Zolder before being caught up in incidents at the following two rounds.

This year, all three have taken different approaches to the off season and will be fully energised, and fully aware that with SEAT, Honda and Ford building up for a full assault in 2013, this year will be their best chance to be the WTCC champion; all they have to do is outperform each other.

The unofficial ‘works’ team, Lukoil Racing will enjoy support from SEAT Sport this year, returning to the Championship for the first time since 2009, when they won the title with Gabriele Tarquini. Although the car is the same venerable (and therefore old) SEAT León first raced in 2005, the engine is all new, and not even a development of the 1.6 turbo engine that the SUNRED drivers ran last year but an all new unit.

Tarquini will be the point man at SEAT leading the development of the engine effectively in season. The 50-year-old Italian was a constant threat for race wins last year, holding off Huff and Menu at Zolder to take his only win of the year early on in the León TDI, and will be a certain bet to take the odd victory, especially as the engine comes on later in the season.

Aleksei Dudukalo will continue to develop in his second year in the Championship, fresh from winning the Russian Winter Track series during the break. He was the last to get the 1.6 turbo engine last season, but this time the Russian has already had a few test days with the new SEAT 1.6T, so has already got a head start on his other independent SEAT rivals.

ROAL expand to a two car line-up for 2012 with Tom Coronel returning alongside 2011 Italian Superstars champion Alberto Cerqui. Cerqui was a revelation in the Superstars Series last year, outscoring his team-mates and previous champions Stefano Gabellini and Thomas Biagi.

Having a team-mate should also spur Coronel on, who had a confidence testing experience in 2010 with SUNRED when he was joined by Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro, with the two drivers joining his team but taking over as the team leaders. This time it’ll be Coronel’s turn to carry the mantle and show Cerqui the ropes, but he certainly won’t want to be shown up by the young Italian either.

New to the WTCC is Ford with the new Focus, and Arena International Motorsport who move across after a long history in the British Touring Car Championship.

The team are treating this season as a learning year, with a new car based on the one they ran in last year’s BTCC for the last two BTCC independents’ champions Tom Chilton and James Nash.

Chilton has raced in the BTCC for ten years, becoming a regular race winner, whilst Nash is relatively new to the top flight of touring cars, racing for RML for selected rounds in 2009 and then joining Triple Eight for the last two years where he took the independent drivers’ title in 2011. Nash however did race in the SEAT León Eurocup in 2008 which will mean he’s more familiar with a couple of the tracks on the calendar than his new team-mate.

Nash is the only driver of the two nominated for the independents’ trophy, and so will be targeting success in that class, whilst Chilton will more likely be trying to rub shoulders with the WTCC’s finest.

Zengõ Motorsport return for their third year in the Championship, and their second with the new BMW 320 TC, expanding to two cars for the first time. Norbert Michelisz, already a race winner in Macau 2010, will compete in the full season whilst 2010 SEAT Eurocup champion Gábor Wéber will compete in just the European half of the year.

Michelisz will be a strong contender for the independents’ trophy and again and should be challenging for race wins in the BMW, whilst Wéber will be learning the ways of both the WTCC and rear-wheel drive, but should adapt quickly with help from his team-mate.

SEAT Tuenti Racing is the brand name for SUNRED’s top team this year, with Pepe Oriola, now with a year’s experience and at the advanced age of ’17’, racing in the SEAT León. Tiago Monteiro was just confirmed at the team, and will be hoping to make use of the return of SEAT Sport to improve his results particularly later in the season.

Monteiro had a rough end to 2011, dropping away from the ‘best of the rest’ fight between Tarquini and Coronel. With Tarquini now at the semi-works SEAT team and Coronel in a new BMW which is 10kg lighter, it’ll be a tough fight to stay with those two again, especially with SUNRED at the end of the SEAT supply chain for parts and engines.

This is SUNRED’s ‘B Team’ for 2012, with Barlesi and Monje effectively replacing Fredy Barth and Michel Nykjaer. Last year SUNRED were very close to taking the independent drivers’ trophy with a strong run of results later in the season, but Barth and Nykjaer had taken a more conventional route to the WTCC through the SEAT Eurocup and Danish Touring Car Championships respectively.

Belgian Barlesi comes from an endurance racing background and will need to adapt quickly to the short, sharp racing of the WTCC. Monje has also been racing in national championships and is making a big step up to the WTCC, but will try his hand first in the European Touring Car Cup at Monza before joining the WTCC grid at Valencia.

British independent team Bamboo Engineering return for their third year in the Championship and again with the same 1.6 turbocharged Chevrolet Cruze which is driven by the works Chevrolet drivers. The advantage is they have a Championship winning car, the disadvantage will be they will run with Championship winning ballast at the start of the year, and more than likely maximum ballast throughout most of the season.

The team also has an all new line-up, with Alex MacDowall moving across after two year’s racing for Chevrolet in the BTCC, and Pasquale Di Sabatino moving up from Auto GP, one of the WTCC’s support classes. MacDowall will be adapting to new circuits which he’s never raced on all year, whilst Di Sabatino will be adapting to entirely different type of car and racing, so expect a challenging season for both drivers.

Proteam are back after a troubled off season, and will be fielding two cars in this year’s Championship. Mehdi Bennani remains with Proteam and this year will be further motivated with the return of his home race in Morocco on April 15th. Bennani found improved pace at the back end of 2011, and as he now stays with the same team for the first time in his WTCC career, will be hoping to carry some of that momentum into 2012, especially now in his new position as ‘team leader’ with the departure of Javier Villa.

Isaac Tutumlu raced for Campos Racing in the opening rounds of the International Superstars Series, also in a rear-wheel drive BMW, but struggled for results in the car as did experienced team-mate Sergio Hernández, with the team withdrawing from the series early. WTCC won’t be any easier to learn so the 26-year-old will be on a steep learning curve this year.

Last year’s independent teams’ champions Liqui Moly Team Engstler again field a strong line-up. This year the team will be running both of their cars, unlike last year when Kristian Poulsen’s car was a satellite operation, and the true second car (run as KK Engstler Motorsport) was run for a variety of drivers throughout the year.

Charles Ng took points on his first run in the turbo BMW at Suzuka, and the 2010 Asian Touring Car Series champion will be a regular on the independents’ class podium.

Engstler though could well be favourite to win his first independent drivers’ title after coming so close last year. The 50-year-old had a terrific run of form from the mid-season right through to the end, finishing third in the independents’ category, taking that historic win at his home circuit in Germany

Special Tuning Racing join the WTCC with Tom Boardman returning after two years away honing his skills in the BTCC, taking his first win last season in the SEAT León. The 2005 SEAT Cupra Cup UK champion has experience of a number of the circuits from years in both the 2009 WTCC as well as the Spanish SEAT León Supercopa series, and will certainly be targeting to at least be the best placed British independent driver.

Darryl O’Young moves across after two years at Bamboo Engineering to join the team, where he’ll likely adapt to the SEAT León WTCC quite quickly. Any disadvantages in racing with a different team and car will probably more than be made-up for in the early rounds by the weight different between the Chevrolet Cruze and the SEAT León, which is set to be 70kg lighter at the first two meetings.

Stefano D’Aste returns with Wiechers-Sport, where he raced for three rounds last season in between his commitments in the GT4 Cup. The Italian has now twice come close to winning races outright in the WTCC, having an overall race victory taken away at Spa 2005 and last year fighting to hold off Rob Huff’s Chevrolet at Porto. D’Aste should also be a strong contender for the independents’ title this season.

Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden return to the WTCC for an occassional campaign only, so far just confirming the Championship opener at Monza. Reigning Scandinavian Touring Car champion Rickard Rydell will be back in the WTCC after two years away and will aim to impress before heading back to Sweden to defend his title.

The 2012 season promises to deliver more excitement this year, even though Chevrolet will be dictating the pace for what could be the last time before SEAT and Honda enter in full force in 2013, with Ford and LADA hopefully increasing their involvement.

The drivers title will more than likely be a three-horse race between the boys in blue, but you can certainly throw Tarquini in as an outside bet, even though the split nature of SEAT Customer Racing means he’ll have little support from his fellow SEATs this time, but then neither can Muller, Huff or Menu rely on each other’s help certainly at the start of the year.

Honda and LADA will join later in the year to mix things up as the Championship travels farther and wider, visiting new tracks in China, Slovakia, Austria and the United States.