I’ll be watching as many WTCC races as I can this year. All the necessary ingredients are there, except probably a fierce competition between different teams / manufacturers. I love the diversity among the drivers – Franz Engstler and Gabriele Tarquini both are already 50 years old, while Pepe Oriola is only 17 and there are quite many drivers below 30. There will be 10 rookies on the Monza grid and the calendar has seen some changes, too. 5 best qualifiers are now going to get points, while the reverse grids (for the 2nd race) have remained. Unfortunately money plays a big role here, too. Javier Villa, a quite promising young driver and one of my favourites, was forced to give up his seat because of financial reasons just a few days before the season start.
Chevrolet’s domination is widely expected to continue and I will be surprised if anyone else except Huff and Muller is able to fight for the title. Ford will most probably need time to adapt to the series and, as I understand, the manufacturer’s input in the operation is not as serious as Chevrolet’s. I believe Tarquini (SEAT) and Coronel (BMW) will still be the biggest threat to Chevys, particularly as SEAT has partly returned to the series as manufacturer.
Bring it on!
