How many TC1 cars are there? How many will we see?

With the 2016 World Touring Car Championship due to start in Russia, provisionally, at the end of March, if not, then in France in April, we’re still piecing together the driver line-ups for next year, with Honda and Lada the last of the factory teams to announce their plans, while the privateers continue to work on their budgets.

So, first, a simple question to ask is how many TC1 cars have been built since the new generation of Super 2000 cars were introduced in 2014 – the answer is a surprising 27 according to my count.

It’s likely as many of ten of those will not be on the grid next year, which means we’re expecting around 16-18 cars (16 is a key minimum figure, as under Article 15 of the WTCC’s sporting regulations: “A Competition may be cancelled if fewer than 16 cars are entered”).

Citroën have built five C-Elysée WTCCs, all five were racing in 2015, three with Citroen Racing and two by Sébastien Loeb Racing.

Honda have built six Civic WTCCs. JAS Motorsport, the team who run the factory programme have three of them. Two were raced while one was kept in Europe as a test car. The Hungarian Zengo Motorsport team has one, Sweden’s Nika Racing has one, and Proteam Racing has one, though the beleaguered privateer Italian team’s car doesn’t have the same updates as the 2015 cars.

Lada have built six cars. Three Grantas, which have not been seen since Macau 2014 (and indeed won’t be seen), and three Vestas. There were supposed to be four, but one was damaged earlier in the season.

RML have built eight Chevrolet Cruze TC1s in total over the last two years, and have confirmed to TouringCarTimes that there are no new cars on order for 2016. Campos Racing owns two, one in 2014 spec, Münnich Motorsport has two, while ROAL Motorsport owns one car, with Tom Chilton owning his own car. Gregoire Demoustier and John Filippi also both own their own cars which were built new for them this season. Craft-Bamboo Racing ran Demoustier’s car, while Filippi’s car was run by Campos Racing.

Cyan Racing are building two new Volvo S60s for Polestar’s return to the WTCC in 2016, with Thed Björk and Fredrik Ekblom already confirmed as the team’s two drivers.

The Citroëns are the cars everyone wants of course. Yvan Muller and José María López have already been confirmed as the drivers of the only two factory cars, with Sébastien Loeb departing the team. However, the nine-time World Rally champion holds the keys to three more with his race team, with Moroccan government backed driver Mehdi Bennani already confirmed to drive one, privateer Gregoire Demoustier ditching his Chevrolet for one, and another privateer with budget set to replace Ma Qing Hua in the other car, now that Citroën China is taking its budget elsewhere.

Honda have just confirmed Gabriele Tarquini will leave the team, paving the way for Norbert Michelisz to join Tiago Monteiro in one of the two Castrol backed factory entries, however that would likely come at the expense of Zengo Motorsport’s continuation in the championship. Honda have said they expect to have four cars in total on the grid, with at least two factory run cars, so how that’s split up across JAS, Nika and Zengo Motorsport is not yet clear. Whether Zengo will leave (and therefore focus on ETCC and/or TCR with the next generation Hungarian stars), or if Nika’s plans to come back from financial difficulty prove to be too optimistic remains to be seen.

The Proteam Honda is likely to be mostly fighting in the courtroom in 2016, with legal cases ongoing between the team, JAS Motorsport and former driver Dusan Borkovic.

Lada will run at least two Vestas, with Rob Huff and Nicky Catsburg understood to be set to remain at the Russian manufacturer which receives technical assistance from ORECA, but a formal announcement about the team’s 2016 line-up is yet to happen.

That leaves the eight Chevrolet Cruzes. Craft-Bamboo will not return, and will focus on their TCR International Series and GT programmes. Münnich Motorsport plan to run one car on a full-time basis, much as they did for Stefano D’Aste this year. Tom Coronel could well be their driver if ROAL Motorsport are unable to continue, else Hugo Valente could move across from Campos Racing to join the German team next season.

The team plan to run their second car on a race-by-race basis for team principal René Münnich, who missed the 2015 season and competed in the World Rallycross Championship with his own team, and in TCR for four events with WestCoast Racing.

Campos Racing, with three cars at their disposal, are likely to continue should drivers be found. It’s possible the team will not continue in the TCR Series, with Opel reportedly opting to place its new Astra OPCs with champions Target Competition instead.

Finally there’s ROAL Motorsport. Tom Chilton is the most likely candidate to join Sébastien Loeb Racing due to his experience and commercial backing, which would mean the Venetian team would need to locate a new driver to be able to continue with their two car programme alongside Tom Coronel, else they would be one of the main casualties next season and would focus their attention on their Blancpain GT programme with BMW.

2016 World Touring Car Championship driver line-up

Driver – Team – Car
José María López – Citroën Racing – Citroën E-Elysée WTCC
Yvan Muller – Citroën Racing – Citroën E-Elysée WTCC
Mehdi Bennani – Sébastien Loeb Racing – Citroën E-Elysée WTCC
Gregoire Demoustier – Sébastien Loeb Racing – Citroën E-Elysée WTCC
TBC – Sébastien Loeb Racing – Citroën E-Elysée WTCC

Thed Björk – Polestar Cyan Racing – Volvo S60 TC1
Fredrik Ekblom – Polestar Cyan Racing – Volvo S60 TC1

Tiago Monteiro – Honda Racing Team JAS – Honda Civic WTCC
TBC – Honda Racing Team JAS – Honda Civic WTCC
Norbert Michelisz – Zengo Motorsport – Honda Civic WTCC
TBC – Nika Racing – Honda Civic WTCC

Rob Huff – Lada Sport – Lada Vesta WTCC
Nicky Catsburg – Lada Sport -Lada Vesta WTCC
TBC – Lada Sport – Lada Vesta WTCC

TBC – Münnich Motorsport – Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1
Réne Münnich – Münnich Motorsport – Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1
TBC – Campos Racing – Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1
TBC – Campos Racing – Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1
Tom Coronel – ROAL Motorsport – Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1
TBC – ROAL Motorsport – Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1

Italics are unconfirmed/speculation