WTCC: Past, present and future... Part 3

WTCC General Manager Marcello Lotti comments the past season and looks at the future evolutions of the World Championship.

“After eleven years under the same set of rules a face-lifting was needed, and we were pleased that the FIA President Jean Todt was sharing this view and has been the first one to embrace the cause. The original idea was to change in 2015, but then we decided to advance the application to 2014, on the wave of the interest shown by new manufacturers and also because the brands currently represented are about to launch new model cars that may be homologated in 2014.”

“We are not talking of a new generation of cars, but of a technical evolution of the Super 2000 that were launched back in 2002. The basic points are an increase of power and noise, a reduction of weight, bigger wheels and a more aggressive look. Then, in order to avoid a stream of requests for technical waivers, more freedom will be granted in the suspension homologation. Further implementations will be studied for a later application, such as the ‘push to pass’ and a common hybrid system. The FIA and the manufacturers are working on the final draft of the that will be finalized by the end of January and submitted to the World Motor Sport Council in March.”

“It will be a natural evolution in the respect of the spirit of touring cars racing that must remain based on the identification of the racing car with the production car it comes from. Someone will be happy, considering this as a simple updating of the championship, someone will disagree, claiming that an increase of costs will follow. However, I believe that Super 2000 proved that the FIA is capable to maintain the stability of technical regulations for a long period. And their efforts, joined with ours, made also possible to keep the costs stable. This evolution will continue to keep the running costs under control, however in the beginning investments on the new cars will be requested. And I can grant that, like it happens every time a motor sport series is undergoing a technical evolution, we will study a way to assure a balanced cohabitation between the current and the new cars.”