CUPRA has confirmed that its new-for-2020 León Competicién car will be present on the grid of the FIA World Touring Car Cup and ‘the main championships’ in 2020, despite early reports having ruled the marque out.
“As in recent seasons, CUPRA will continue to support its customers with engineering support and technical assistance, in a competition that is not for factory teams and, therefore, our presence depends on customers,” said CUPRA Racing Director Jaime Puig.
“Both in the case of the WTCR and in the rest of the championships, we will have to wait to know the final schedules to know how many CUPRA Leon Competición will be on the track.
“But today we can say that we have confirmed the presence of teams with our new model in the main championships, such as WTCR, TCR Europe, TCR Scandinavia, TCR Italy, TCR Germany, VLN or 24 Hours Series.”
The news comes in contrast to that reported in Portuguese media in April, which had reported that CUPRA would be unlikely to enter into WTCR this year.
The current COVID-19 pandemic has allowed CUPRA further time ahead of the début of its new model, and Puig reiterated that despite the lockdown in numerous countries in Europe, support would be provided when the car eventually does hit the tracks.
“[These] have been very strange times for everyone and we have had to work in a very different way at CUPRA.
“We usually meet face to face with our customers at the circuits, but now we have not been able to do any of that, simply because we have been confined and physical contact has been prohibited.
“Despite this, we have continued to serve our customers and the communication with them, via email or telephone, has not been interrupted at any time.”
CUPRA opened the order books for its new TCR cars online in December 2019, and the brand has received a lot of positive comments and orders.
“The reception has been fantastic. We have received a large number of requests for information, reservations and good comments, despite being a brand new car and that nobody has been able to see or test.
“Since the online pre-booking process was launched in December – the first for a racing touring car – we have received more than 30 requests.
“This shows the confidence that customers have in CUPRA, the most successful brand in TCR, with a record of 70 victories worldwide in 2019.
“The delivery of the first CUPRA Leon Competición is scheduled for the end of June and will be done in a timely staggered manner.
“We have prioritized customers in Europe so they can compete with it, and then our idea is to export to more distant markets.”