The 2011 World Touring Car Championship season was the eighth season of the FIA World Touring Car Championship, and the seventh since its 2005 return. The championship, which was open to Super 2000 cars and Diesel 2000 cars, [1] began with the Race of Brazil at Curitiba on 20 March and ended with the Guia Race of Macau at the Guia Circuit on 20 November, after twelve events and twenty-four races.
The series underwent major changes with new circuits Suzuka and Tianma coming into the championship, new drivers such as Pepe Oriola to SUNRED Engineering and Robert Dahlgren with Polestar Racing for the whole season. The series lost the FIA Formula Two Championship as a support championship, but it was replaced by Auto GP. It was also supported by a brand new series, European Production Series which supported the six rounds at Zolder, Monza, Brno, Donington, Oschersleben and Valencia.
A provisional list of teams and drivers was revealed on 23 February, [2] and the official entry list was published on 4 March. [3]
Chevrolet retained their three full-time drivers from 2010, Yvan Muller, Robert Huff and Alain Menu. Cacá Bueno also joined the team in a fourth car at his home meeting in Curitiba. The team utilized the newly introduced 1,600 cc (98 cu in) engine. Again, two further Chevrolets were entered by bamboo-engineering, who retained their 2010 drivers, Darryl O'Young and Yukinori Taniguchi. Bamboo campaigned Lacettis at the first round in Curitiba, but contested the rest of the season with Cruzes.
SUNRED Engineering again ran six cars through three different team guises. Gabriele Tarquini remained with the team and was joined by former SEAT León Eurocup racer Aleksei Dudukalo, who brought Lukoil sponsorship into the team. Another three-car outfit was headed by Tiago Monteiro, who was joined by Michel Nykjær, and another graduate from the SEAT León Eurocup, Pepe Oriola. Fredy Barth completed the SEAT sextet, with his SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED team. The SEATs began the season using a two-litre turbo diesel engine and from Hungary introduced a similar engine to that used in the Chevrolets. However, the cars were branded as SR Leon with no SEAT support at all. Leaving the team is Jordi Gené, who parted with the team before the end of the 2010 season.
Norbert Michelisz remained in the championship with the Zengő Dension Team, but switched to a BMW 320 TC, having campaigned a SEAT in 2010, winning a race at Macau. He began his campaign at the second round of the season at Zolder. Three other teams campaigned a single 320 TC during the season; ROAL Motorsport returned to the series, with Tom Coronel switching from a SUNRED SEAT, Wiechers-Sport ran Urs Sonderegger – another driver from the SEAT León Eurocup – at the European races held during the season, and DeTeam KK Motorsport ran Marchy Lee, who steps up from the Asian Porsche Carrera Cup.
The factory BMW Team RBM did not return in 2011, and drivers Augusto Farfus and Andy Priaulx moved into sportscar racing, entering the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. Independent BMWs were however campaigned by the Proteam Racing and Liqui Moly Team Engstler outfits. Proteam ran three BMWs; two 320 TCs for Mehdi Bennani, who moves from Wiechers-Sport and former single-seater racer Javier Villa, as well as a naturally aspirated 320si for Fabio Fabiani. Bennani and Villa replaced Independents' champion Sergio Hernández and Stefano D'Aste. Team Engstler ran two cars once again, with Franz Engstler being joined by Kristian Poulsen, who drove for his own team in 2010 after driving for Engstler in 2009. Poulsen replaced Andrei Romanov.
Polestar Racing campaigned a Volvo full-time in 2011, having contested five meetings over the past four seasons. Swedish Touring Car Championship runner-up Robert Dahlgren again campaigned the car as he had done in each of Polestar's events to date. The team also introduced a similar engine in the mid-season.
The provisional calendar for the 2011 season was approved by the FIA World Motor Sport Council on 8 September 2010 [4] with further amendments on 3 November 2010, [5] 7 December 2010 [6] and 8 March 2011. [7]
Event | Race Name | Track | Date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | R1 | Race of Brazil | ![]() | 20 March |
R2 | ||||
2 | R3 | Monroe Race of Belgium | ![]() | 24 April |
R4 | ||||
3 | R5 | Race of Italy | ![]() | 15 May |
R6 | ||||
4 | R7 | Race of Hungary | ![]() | 5 June |
R8 | ||||
5 | R9 | Monroe Race of the Czech Republic | ![]() | 19 June |
R10 | ||||
6 | R11 | Race of Turismo de Portugal | ![]() | 3 July |
R12 | ||||
7 | R13 | Race of UK | ![]() | 17 July |
R14 | ||||
8 | R15 | bet-at-home.com Race of Germany | ![]() | 31 July |
R16 | ||||
9 | R17 | interwetten.com Race of Spain | ![]() | 4 September |
R18 | ||||
10 | R19 | Kenwood Race of Japan | ![]() | 23 October |
R20 | ||||
11 | R21 | Race of China | ![]() | 6 November |
R22 | ||||
12 | R23 | Race of Macau | ![]() | 20 November |
R24 |
Points system | ||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | |||||||||
25 | 18 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
|
Bold – Pole |
† — Drivers did not finish the race, but were classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.
Drivers Championship points were awarded on a 25–18–15–12–10–8–6–4–2–1 basis for the first ten places in each race. [1]
|
Manufacturers Championship points were awarded on a 25–18–15–12–10–8–6–4–2–1 basis for the first ten places in each race. [1] However, only the results obtained by the best two cars classified per manufacturer in each race were counted. [1] All the other cars of that same manufacturer were invisible as far as scoring points is concerned. [1]
|
Bold – Pole |
|
|
|
The 2008 World Touring Car Championship season was the fifth World Touring Car Championship season, the fourth since its 2005 return. It began on 2 March, and ended on 16 November, after twenty-four races. The championship, which was open to Super 2000 Cars and Diesel 2000 Cars, was composed of the FIA World Touring Car Championship for Drivers and the FIA World Touring Car Championship for Manufacturers.
The 2009 World Touring Car Championship season was the sixth FIA World Touring Car Championship season, the fifth since its 2005 return. It began on 8 March, and ended on 22 November, after twenty-four races. The championship, which was reserved for Super 2000 Cars and Diesel 2000 Cars, comprised two titles, the FIA World Touring Car Champion for Drivers and the FIA World Touring Car Champion for Manufacturers.
Michel Nykjær is a Danish auto racing driver. Nykjær is a two-time European Touring Car Cup winner.
Engstler Motorsport is a private German auto racing team based in Wiggensbach, run by driver Franz Engstler. It has competed successfully in the Asian Touring Car Championship and the ADAC Procar Series. It is sponsored by lubricants company Liqui Moly and known officially as Liqui Moly Team Engstler.
The 2010 World Touring Car Championship season was the seventh season of the FIA World Touring Car Championship, and the sixth since its 2005 return. It began with the Race of Brazil at Curitiba on 7 March and ended with the Guia Race of Macau at the Guia Circuit on 21 November, after twenty-two races at eleven events. The championship was open to both Super 2000 and Diesel 2000 cars.
The FIA WTCC Race of Spain 2009 was the fifth round of the 2009 World Touring Car Championship season and the fifth running of the FIA WTCC Race of Spain. It was held on 31 May 2009 at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Cheste, near Valencia in Spain. The first race was won by Gabriele Tarquini for SEAT Sport and the second race was won by Augusto Farfus for BMW Team Germany.
The 2009 FIA WTCC Race of Japan was the eleventh round of the 2009 World Touring Car Championship season and the second running of the FIA WTCC Race of Japan. It was held on 1 November 2009 at the Okayama International Circuit near Mimasaka, Japan. The two races were won by BMW drivers Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus. The race was supported by the 2009 1000 km of Okayama, the inaugural event of the Asian Le Mans Series.
The 2009 FIA WTCC Race of Brazil was the first round of the 2009 World Touring Car Championship season. It was held on March 8, 2009 at the Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba near Curitiba, Brazil. It was the fourth running of the FIA WTCC Race of Brazil.
The 2010 FIA WTCC Race of Brazil was a World Touring Car Championship round held at Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba near Curitiba, Brazil on 7 March 2010. It was the opening round of the 2010 World Touring Car Championship season and the fifth running of the FIA WTCC Race of Brazil. The two races were won by Yvan Muller of Chevrolet and Gabriele Tarquini of SR-Sport
The 2010 FIA WTCC Race of UK was the sixth round of the 2010 World Touring Car Championship season and the sixth running of the FIA WTCC Race of UK. It was held at Brands Hatch in Kent, England on 18 July 2010. The two races were won by Yvan Muller of Chevrolet RML and Andy Priaulx of BMW Team RBM.
The 2010 FIA WTCC Race of Japan was the tenth round of the 2010 World Touring Car Championship season and the third running of the FIA WTCC Race of Japan. It was held at the Okayama International Circuit near Mimasaka, Japan on 31 October 2010. The first race was won by Robert Huff of Chevrolet RML and race two was won by Colin Turkington of Team Aviva-COFCO.
Josep "Pepe" Oriola Vila is a Spanish racing driver. He became the youngest driver to race in the World Touring Car Championship when he competed in the 2011 season. Oriola is not only the youngest driver to start a WTCC race at the age of 16, he’s also the youngest to be on the podium and to have won a race. Feats he achieved in Brazil in 2011 and Morocco in 2013 respectively. His record of being the youngest driver ever to compete, score championship points and win a race in the prestigious WTCC remains to this day. In 2018 he competed in the World Touring Car Cup and finish 6th in a close title fight till the last rounds in Macau. In 2019 he switches from factory driver of CUPRA to Hyundai Motorsport. Oriola also won the 1st ever 24h race of only TCR Cars in Spa Francorchamps in 2019 with the team Red Camel-Jordans. He is part of the team Changan Ford in China Touring Car Championship CTCC where in 2019 won 3 races.
The 2011 FIA WTCC Race of Brazil was the opening round of the 2011 World Touring Car Championship season and the sixth running of the FIA WTCC Race of Brazil. It was held at the Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba near Curitiba, Brazil on 20 March 2011. This was the first race for the new FIA 1.6T world engine formula.
The 2011 FIA WTCC Race of China was the eleventh round of the 2011 World Touring Car Championship season and the maiden running of the FIA WTCC Race of China. It was held on 6 November 2011 at the Tianma Circuit in Shanghai, China.
The 2013 World Touring Car Championship season was the tenth season of the FIA World Touring Car Championship, and the ninth since the series was revived in 2005. The championship, which was reserved for cars run to Super 2000 regulations, began with the Race of Italy on 23 March and concluded with the Race of Macau in support of the Macau Grand Prix at the Guia Circuit on 17 November, after twenty-four races at twelve events.
The 2012 FIA WTCC Race of China was the penultimate round of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship season and the second running of the FIA WTCC Race of China. It was held on 4 November 2012 at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China for the first time, as the previous year's race was held at the nearby Shanghai Tianma Circuit. Both races were won by Chevrolet with Alain Menu winning race one and Robert Huff winning race two.
The 2011 FIA WTCC Race of Hungary was the fourth round of the 2011 World Touring Car Championship season and the inaugural running of the FIA WTCC Race of Hungary. It was held on 5 June 2011 at the Hungaroring in Mogyoród near Budapest, Hungary.
The 2011 FIA WTCC Race of Japan was the tenth round of the 2011 World Touring Car Championship season and the fourth running of the FIA WTCC Race of Japan. It was held on 23 October 2011 at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka City, Japan.
The 2014 FIA World Touring Car Championship was a motor racing competition organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for Super 2000 Cars. It was the eleventh FIA World Touring Car Championship, and the tenth since the series was revived in 2005.
The 2013 FIA WTCC Race of China was the eleventh round of the 2013 World Touring Car Championship season and the third running of the FIA WTCC Race of China. It was held on 3 November 2013 at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China.