Photo: TCR Italy

TCR World Ranking Final to be staged in alternate years, called off for 2024

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The TCR World Ranking Final is set for a revamp that will see the event not take place in 2024 and be staged in alternate years only, as opposed to the original idea of making it an annual contest.

Originally announced last year, the TCR World Ranking Final was devised as a sort of one-off showdown for the best 45 drivers of the TCR World Ranking system.

The event, however, has yet to see the light of day. A previously announced inaugural edition in Portimão – originally slated for March of this year – was ultimately called off, with organizers WSC stating the race would instead move to a new date and venue “in the last third of the year”.

However, speaking in an interview with TouringCarTimes, WSC president Marcello Lotti said the plan had now shifted yet again and that the World Ranking Final would not go ahead in 2024.

Referencing the importance of cost control, Lotti said the latest idea is to stage the event in alternate years with the FIA Motorsport Games to ensure teams and drivers are not stretching their annual budgets too far.

“We must not make it too complicated for the teams to find the budget,” Lotti told TouringCarTimes.

“For this, we decided not to be in clash with the FIA Motorsport Games. When I say clash, I mean not in the same year. The new strategy is that we will do one year the FIA Motorsport Games, another year the TCR World Ranking Final.”

The FIA Motorsport Games – a biennial “Olympic”-style event that takes in a host of categories, including touring cars – took place in Valencia in October this year.

“This means that the first World Ranking Final will be next year,” confirmed Lotti. “We are working now to find the location. We have 3-4 options at the moment. We have to do the final where there are enough cars also to rent for the participating teams coming from far away.

“Europe is one of the obvious options because there are a lot of cars that people can rent. But we have also two overseas locations that are candidate events. They have the budget to cover the transportation costs for the teams. I think in beginning of January we will make a final decision on where to be.”

Staying on the topic of the FIA Motorsport Games, which featured touring cars racing on 50% sustainable fuels this year, Lotti concluded the interview by confirming a 100% sustainable option is currently undergoing testing and could be introduced in the FIA TCR World Tour as early as 2025.