Belgium back, Argentina out for WTCC
The WTCC will now not be visiting Argentina in 2011, with Zolder added back on the calendar. A number of other changes for next year’s WTCC have also been announced.
At a meeting of the World Motorsport Council as part of the FIA General Assembly Week, a number of changes to the 2011 World Touring Car Championship have been confirmed.
The most major change the dropping of the round scheduled at Buenos Aires in Argentina for April 2011.
This would have formed part of a South American double header to open the season.
Argentina itself had taken the spot from Mexico, which was cancelled this year after safety concerns with severe flooding in the area, and was not included on the 2011 calendar.
This means the teams will once again head out to the Americas for one round only, before returning to the Belgian circuit of Zolder in April. The Belgian round has been added to the calendar for April 24th, subject to confirmation from Belgium’s ASN.
Also, as reported previously, Donington Park has now been officially confirmed as the replacement for Brands Hatch as the UK host of the WTCC next year.
This marks the separation of the WTCC and Motorsport Vision, who run the Formula Two championship and own the Brands Hatch circuit.
The F2 series, which has supported the WTCC during its European rounds, will run as a headline event on its own in 2011. The WTCC is yet to confirm their replacement on the support package.
The final change is to the sporting regulations, with the WMSC also confirming that the top ten cars will be reversed for race two from next year, aligning with the top ten points scoring system.
However, instead of using the top ten results from race one, the top ten from the first qualifying session will be used, so effectively both races grids will be set after the Saturday qualifying session.
Up until 2003, the top six from the result of race one were reversed in line with the points system in the WTCC’s predecessor, the European Touring Car Championship. The top eight began to be reversed as the new 10,8,6,5,4,3,2,1 system was adopted from 2003.
This year, despite the top ten now designated as points scorers as the series adopted the new Formula 1 points system, the top eight positions from race one continued to be reversed as the sporting regulations for the season had already been appoved.
Revised 2011 WTCC Calendar
20 Mar – Brazil – Curitiba
24 Apr – Belgium – Zolder **
15 May – Italy – Monza
05 Jun – Morocco – Marrakech
19 Jun – Czech Republic – Brno
03 Jul – Portgual – Porto *
17 Jul – United Kingdom – Donington Park
31 Jul – Germany – Oschersleben
04 Sep – Spain – Valencia Ricardo Tormo
23 Oct – Japan – Suzuka
05 Nov – China – TBA **
20 Nov – Macau – Macau
* Subject to homologation of the circuit
** – Subject to confirmation of the ASN
