Marcello Lotti: “TCR success not a surprise”

Marcello Lotti was present at the meeting at Mettet, Belgium, where the Opel Astra TCR was revealed.

The creator of the TCR concept discussed the past and the future of the category: “I think the success we have enjoyed is not a surprise, but it comes from hard work,” said the Italian. “We started working on this project with a lot of passion and having six brands and so many regional championships coming up even before the first season is over is great, but we want even more.”

The WSC CEO explained that the future calendar will not be too different from what we saw, and he expects to make an announcement very soon: “Hopefully we will be able to release at least a draft of the calendar in the coming weeks. There should not be too many differences compared to this year, we are waiting for news to come from Chile and Argentina and are obviously working with FOM to see when we will be able to join the Formula One World Championship. Besides that, I wouldn’t rule out sharing the weekends with major GT series, recreating a bit what was the Super Racing Weekend.”

With six brands already on board and two more very near to joining the series as Alfa Romeo and Peugeot are close to their launch, Lotti does not deny there could be more: “There are at least four brands studying TCR, but I’m sure more will come. I am convinced we will have a lot of cars on the grid next year, besides the cars which will join the regional championships.”

New series scheduled to kick off in 2016 are China, Thailand, USA, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Benelux and Germany, with TCR Las Americas Copa Caribe and TCR Europe Drivers and Teams Trophy also starting next year.