The World Touring Car Championship has had its calendar for the 2014 campaign confirmed at the final World Motor Sport Council meeting of 2013 today, with 12 weekends between April and November.
As was the same for 2012 and 2013, the Championship will have its European leg of the season before heading overseas for the final five rounds, with the traditional season finale at Macau in November.
The 2014 campaign gets underway later than normal on the streets of Marrakech in April, to allow teams to develop up the new 2014 spec ‘TC1’ cars.
Joining the calendar for the 2014 campaign is the Le Castellet circuit in France and Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, with Monza and Porto missing out. With no Italian round in 2014, it marks the first time the WTCC won’t visit Italy since its inception in 2005.
Suzuka will see its round switched from the unpopular East configuration to the full length 5.8km Grand Prix loop, the first time the Japanese round will have been held on a full length configuration since the final event at Okayama in 2010.
The opening 14 races of the campaign will take place in the space of three months while the final 10 races will be run over the space of 4 months.
The confirmed 2014 World Touring Car Championship Calendar:
|
DATE |
COUNTRY |
CIRCUIT |
ROUNDS |
|
5/6th April |
Morocco |
Marrakech |
1 and 2 |
|
19/20th April |
France |
Le Castellet |
3 and 4 |
|
4/5th May |
Hungary |
Hungaroring |
5 and 6 |
|
10/11th May |
Slovakia |
Slovakiaring |
7 and 8 |
|
24/25th May |
Austria |
Salzburgring |
9 and 10 |
|
7/8th June |
Russia |
Moscow Raceway |
11 and 12 |
|
21/22nd June |
Belgium |
Spa-Francorchamps |
13 and 14 |
|
2/3rd August |
Argentina |
Termas de Rio Hondo |
15 and 16 |
|
13/14th September |
USA |
Sonoma Raceway |
17 and 18 |
|
11/12th October |
China |
Shanghai International |
19 and 20 |
|
25/26th October |
Japan |
Suzuka |
21 and 22 |
|
14/16th November |
Macau |
Guia Circuit |
23 and 24 |
As well as the calendar being announced, the FIA also confirmed that each round will be a fixed length of 60kms, with an additional lap added to ensure that the races make 60kms. For places like Macau, which has a lap length of 6.2km, an additional lap may not be added while Spa is likely to be a 9 lap encounter as it is a 7km lap.
Certain cars will also be removed from Appendix J 2010 to make them eligible for the European Touring Car Cup in 2014 and any cars involved will be reclassified in due course.
Bit silly not to have a UK round.
I agree but sadly, I can’t see it for the next few years. Our best bet would be the Circuit of Wales when its finally constructed. The UK isn’t the target market for the WTCC, Eastern Europe, the Americas and Asia mainly nowadays.
I live in the USA. We have the Sonoma round.
Citroen – not sold here
Seat – not sold here
Lada – not sold here
BMW – no longer on the grid
Honda – that Civic isn’t sold here
Chevy – Yay, we have 1 car to cheer for!
UK….i think all but the Lada is sold there but you can now buy the Lada Niva in the UK which is better & stronger than owning an aircraft carrier.