2012 World Touring Car Championship

it baffles me that arena persist with andy neate. it was abit shady how the onslow cole thing panned out, consitently the better driver and he gets replace with a third rate driver. he'd have done better this season if he'd had a bit of closed season development. it would be good to see both the toms have a crack at wtcc.
 
I am putting my money on Dahlgren and Volvo this year. They've had a great first season in 2011 and the car proved to be very competitive at most circuits.

Now Robert has more experience on the tracks on the calendar I can see him going for the big points this year. Curious who will be his team mate. James Thompson, Gabrielle Tarquini, somebody else?
 
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Italy-based ROAL Motorsport will step up to a two-car team for the 2012 FIA World Touring Car Championship. After making their comeback to the series in 2011, with only one BMW 320 TC car, the outfit directed by former world champion Roberto Ravaglia are ready to double their effort adding Alberto Cerqui to Tom Coronel.

Coronel is facing his second season with the team; the 39-year old Dutchman emerged as the best of the rest in 2011, claiming one victory at Suzuka and being classified fourth in the Drivers’ Championship behind the Chevrolet trio.

The team’s second car will be entrusted to Italian racer Cerqui; although he is only 19 years old, he has already established himself as a rising star in touring car competitions, clinching the 2011 Italian Superstars title on his first year in a professional championship.

Team principal Ravaglia commented: “I am extremely satisfied for lining up two cars in 2012. It won’t be easy to repeat the good results we achieved in 2011, but I am confident. Tom provides experience and reliability, while Alberto has already shown his talent in adapting to new circuits.”

“2011 was a positive year. Race after race I improved the feeling with the team and we ended up fighting for the podium in the last four rounds. Starting from last year’s fourth place, our goal is to improve and win some more races; I feel I can fight for third in the championship,” Coronel stated.

Cerqui added: “After winning the Italian Superstars, WTCC was the obvious choice to continue my career in touring car racing. Having the opportunity to continue racing for ROAL Motorsport is a further reason to rejoice, though I am aware that is not going to be a walk in the park as most of the tracks are new to me and the level of competition is very high.”

Source & Source
 
I'm very tempted to fly to Salzburg and watch WTCC and ETCC. Is it a good track from a spectator point of view? Would be great if they could throw in some historic racing as support class. I have a cousin living in that area of Europe and this would be another reason to visit him. Hmm, I wonder if there are any German BergCup-races the weekend before or after WTCC in Austria? That would be epic to watch!:)
 
Gabriele Tarquini and Alexey Dudukalo will team once again in the 2012 WTCC.
The 2009 World Champion and the young Russian will race under the banner of the new Lukoil Racing Team at the wheel of two SEAT León cars powered by a new 1.6-litre turbo engine that is going to be homologated by SEAT.“I’m very happy because Lukoil confirmed me as one of their drivers, and I’m also proud because they appointed me to raise the next generation of Russia’s racers.

"Now I’m eagerly looking forward to the new season. We will race again with the old León, but I expect a lot from the new SEAT engine. I believe we will be a much stronger package than last year, and in the position to fight with Chevrolet,” Tarquini said.

Dudukalo added: “Last year our main problem was the engine, not enough powerful and reliable compared to our competitors. This time we will not have this problem, and furthermore we can rely on better experience and technical support.

Team director Evgeniy Malinovskiy concluded: “I am glad that Tarquini remained in our team. He is a professional and victory-focused driver, whose experience will help us to grow stronger. This year will be very important for Dudukalo; he won many Russian titles, but lacked experience in competition at such a high level. Now we expect more consistent results from him. WTCC is one of the most effective marketing and sporting tools for Lukoil; it is an excellent platform to create guest programmes for partners.”

Lukoil Racing Team will hit the track for pre-season testing in the first days of February.

Source
 
I am starting to get worried that we will not see a Volvo on the grid this year. While other teams and manufacturers have committed to another season and Ford and Lada have confirmed to drive (some) races this 2012 season it's awfully silent when it comes to Polestar Racing.

They have so far only confirmed to drive in the newly created Swedish TTA series but no news has been shared about the WTCC since the last race at Macau in November.
 
As I've said many times. The fact that Dahlgren has been signed to TTA, is pretty much a definite answer. Polestar has signed 4 drivers for the TTA team, I don't think they are going to sign 1-2 more drivers to drive WTCC.
However, TTA and WTCC dates do not clash.
 
AFAIK the only thing that has been confirmed is that they're not going to race three cars in the WTCC this year. But as Ole said, it is very unlikely they will run WTCC at all. I have also heard a rumor(!) they might join WTCC next year or in 2014 as Volvo launches a new model, called V40, as the C30 is pretty old by now.

Also, Dahlgrens signed contract with Polestar is over four years, don't think he would risk that much time with a new project such as the TTA series, especially with him proving his skills in the WTCC this year.
 
List of 2012 Car Weights Published by FIA
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The FIA has published the list of the starting weights for the cars eligible to compete in the 2012 FIA World Touring Car Championship.

The domination wielded by the Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T during the previous season resulted in its minimum weight being increased by 30 kilos, from 1150 to 1180.

The BMW 320 TC cars was given a weight of 1160 kg, 10 less compared to last year’s 1170.

Any other model which took part in the 2011 championship will start on 1150 kg; this includes the 2.0L normally aspirated BMW 320si (-5 kg compared to 2011), Chevrolet Cruze LT and Chevrolet Lacetti, the 2.0L turbo diesel SEAT León TDi and the 1.6L turbo SUNRED León 1.6T and Volvo C30 that had been accepted by national homologations.

These weights take into account the balance of performance set by the Touring Car Committee.
New models such as Ford Focus and SEAT León 1.6 TSi will be added later by the Touring Car Committee.

All the cars will start the season on the maximum compensation weight: 40 kilos added to their minimum weights.

fiawtcc.com
 
WTCC 2012 Season At A Glance

Here is your guide to what is happening when in the WTCC during 2012.

Any times below are given in GMT, and are subject to change.

This thread will be updated with results throughout the season.

The flags below will link you to the relevant entries once posted.

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Italy.png
Italy - Monza, Autodromo di Monza

10th / 11th March 2012
Round 1​
Round 2​

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Spain - Valencia, Circuit Ricardo Tormo

31st March / 1st April 2012
Round 3​
Round 4​

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Morocco - Marrakech, Circuit de Marrakech

14th / 15th April 2012
Round 5​
Round 6​
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Slovak Republic - Orechová Potôň, Slovakia Ring

28th / 29th April 2012
Round 7​
Round 8​
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Hungary - Budapest, Hugaroring

5th / 6th May 2012
Round 9​
Round 10​
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Austria - Salzburg, Salzburgring

19th / 20th May 2012
Round 11​
Round 12​
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Portugal - Estoril, Circuito do Estoril

2nd / 3rd June 2012
Round 13​
Round 14​
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Brazil - Curitiba, Autodromo Internacional de Curitiba

21st / 22nd July 2012
Round 15​
Round 16​
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USA - Sonoma, Infineon Raceway

22nd / 23rd September 2012
Round 17​
Round 18​
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Japan - Suzuka, Suzuka East Circuit

20th / 21st October 2012
Round 19​
Round 20​
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China - Shanghai, Shanghai International Circuit

3rd / 4th November 2012
Round 21​
Round 22​
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Macau - Guia, Circuito da Guia

16th / 18th November 2012
Round 23​
Round 24​
 
Bamboo Upgrade Their Chevrolet Cars

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Bamboo engineering announced they will run again two Chevrolet Cruze 1.6 turbo powered cars in 2012, with full specification upgrades and identical to the works RML cars.


Team Principal, Richard Coleman said: “We’re delighted to be able to run with exactly the same specification cars as the works RML team this year. The Cruze has been outstandingly successful over the last couple seasons and we’re confident that that will continue in 2012 with these latest updates. We have almost a years experience with the car and with the latest updates we’re confident that we’ll be in contention for the Yokohama Trophy title once again this year.

“On the driver front, we’re talking to several top line drivers at the moment and we’ll hopefully be in a position to announce our line up within the next couple of weeks,” Coleman concluded.


FIAWTCC.com
 

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