Independents: It’s not as close as last year

With the summer break starting in the World Touring Car Championship and eight of the twelfth races run, it’s time to take a look at what effect the new regulations in the independents trophy have.

Over the winter, the WTCC made changes to the points system in the independents trophy. Instead of only being able to score points for the position they finish in the independents class, like it has been last year, the drivers can score extra points this year for setting the independents pole, setting fastest lap and finishing in the top eight.

For each pole position or fastest lap set in the independents class, the drivers can score an extra point. For each WTCC point by finishing in the top eight they get an additional 3 points in the independents standings.

After two thirds of the races over, Félix Porteiro is leading the championship with a 16 points margin over Tom Coronel. Franz Engstler is in third position, 41 points behind Porteiro.

All three drivers have been leading the championship at some point this year. Félix Porteiro started the season of well, by getting wins in the four first races. Franz Engstler was the first to fight back, by taking 15 points more than Porteiro at Marrakech. At Pau he took over the lead in the championship, despite not scoring any points in the second race after he had been taken out of the lead of the race by the safety car.

After that things went downwards for Franz Engstler, with only one podium finish since. Tom Coronel on the other hand started to pick up the pace, and took over the lead a race after Pau, at Valencia. He led the field with 82 points, while Porteiro and Engstler both had 80.

But a race later, at Brno in the Czech Republic, Félix Porteiro took back control of the championship. He scored a sixth and fourth place finish and subsequently got 21 points extra, to make it a total of 44 points that weekend.

But what would the championship have looked like if the rules hadn’t changed? There would have only be two drivers that had led the championship. Tom Coronel would be leading the standings at this time, but would have only taken over the lead after the last race.

Even though it may sound like it would be less close with the old rules, because there would have been less leaders, the differences would have been marginal. Of course, Porteiro would have been in a big lead after the first two rounds in South America because of his four wins, but after that Coronel and Engstler started to wheel him back in.

After the Pau race, Engstler would have been two points behind Porteiro. The race after that, in Valencia, it would have been Coronel who had been two points behind on Porteiro. After the last race, Coronel would even have led the championship with three points over Tom Coronel.

An overview of the point standings with the old and new regulations: