Photo: Honda World Touring Car Team

WTCC set for two trips to China from 2017, with Wuhan a possible destination

By

The World Touring Car Championship is set to drop to four European rounds from the 2017 season, with an additional event in mainland China set to take the European events place in order to satisfy the strong manufacturer interest in the Chinese automobile market.

The WTCC has just five European countries included on its current calendar; Hungary, Germany, Slovakia, France and Portugal, and is set to drop to four from 2017 with newer FIA Grade 2 circuits in mainland China set to take their place.

“I will have to do one less European round because I really want to do two events in China,” said Eurosport Events COO Francois Ribeiro.

“Whatever manufacturer you talk to, it’s such a big market. Would you say that because Europe has 300 million people and the three biggest cities in China have 300 million people, (its equal) to do one event in Europe to activate the manufacturers’ network? I think given the size of the Chinese market, two events is normal.”

The WTCC featured two events in mainland China last year, not counting the Special Administrative Region of Macau, with the Beijing Goldenport Circuit a late stand-in for the cancelled round at Sonoma Raceway in the USA, but the small, much maligned circuit would not be the type of track on Ribeiro’s radar for a second Chinese event.

“That circuit has nowhere near the level of infrastructure we need, but there are new circuits under construction in China, which are Grade 2,” he said.

“One of them would be very good for us, Wuhan. Logistically speaking it’s not so far from Shanghai, just along the Yantzee river. It’s a huge population area and a handful of the car manufacturers in the world have factories there. Honda have factories there, Volkswagen has a factory there, PSA, Kia and Hyundai and I think Ford also have factories there, so I would not be surprised if half of the population directly or indirectly are involved in the automotive industry, so it would make sense to bring the WTCC there.

“But we have to wait for those circuits to be finished and homologated. I don’t know if they’ll be ready for 2016, but for sure they’ll be finished before the end of 2016 so we can include them on the calendar for 2017.”