TCR World Tour and TCR Europe seasons get underway with 22-car field

A new era in touring car racing commences at the Autodromo do Algarve in Portugal this weekend, as the TCR World Tour gets underway by joining the field of the TCR Europe series.

A combined total of 22 cars have been entered for the event, consisting of nine entries in the TCR World Tour and 13 entries in TCR Europe.

Grid sizes may be a little underwhelming for fans of both series, but it has been a tumultuous few months for World Touring Cars, following the shock news of Discovery Sports Events backing out of promoting the series in late 2022.

Many will thus see this as a starting point, and it nonetheless features a high-quality grid consisting of many of the regular faces from the very top of recent touring car history.

Another reason for the modest grid size may well be the TCR World Ranking and TCR World Tour format itself. Qualification to the TCR World Ranking Final is possible not only for the top 15 drivers (if it ever gets to that many) competing in the TCR World Tour events, but also for the top 45 drivers classified in the TCR World Rankings.

As such, drivers can qualifying by contesting regional TCR series, or strong national series.

An unintended consequence may therefore be that teams and drivers try to ‘play the system’ by qualifying for the TCR World Ranking Final in the cheapest way possible.

It is also possible that as the season progresses, drivers will enter odd races in other championships in order to ‘top up’ their points to ensure final qualification.

As the season progresses for both TCR World Tour and TCR Europe, therefore, additional entries can be expected to come and go.

TCR World Tour

The biggest entry in terms of numbers comes from the Swedish Cyan Racing squad. Fielding four facelifted Lynk & Co 03 TCR cars, the Geely-linked team will be running two-time FIA World Touring Car Cup champion Yann Ehrlacher, 2017 FIA World Touring Car Champion Thed Björk, and multiple race winners Ma Qing Hua and Santiago Urrutia.

It means that, at present, there is no room for arguably touring car racing’s most successful star, Yvan Muller, who has not been revealed as part of any plans this season.

Comtoyou Racing had outlined plans to field four Audi RS3 LMS TCR cars in this year’s World Tour, but in the end has committed to running only two – for established Audi Sport racer Frédéric Vervisch and new signing Rob Huff.

Although that looks like a scaling down for Jean-Michel Baert’s team, bear in mind that the Belgian outfit is still running four cars in TCR Europe and could expand as required this year, as Audi’s favoured customer racing outfit.

Vervisch was a WTCR title challenger in 2021, and with the Audi being on form could be one of the strongest names to potentially top the overall TCR World Tour points.

Huff has never previously raced an Audi, but the Brit joins after many years in Volkswagen-Audi Group TCR cars, so is unlikely to find the equipment to be completely alien to him.

As with last season in WTCR, BRC Racing will field two Hyundai Elantra N cars for reigning WTCR champion Mikel Azcona and 2019 WTCR champion Norbert Michelisz.

Azcona has been one of the strongest drivers in TCR in recent years, and there is little to suggest that will change in the forthcoming season, whilst Michelisz found some more form towards the end of last season which shows he has not lost his pace.

Just one Honda has been entered into the TCR World Tour – and at present, only for the European events at that. Estonian team ALM Motorsport will run a single new-generation Civic FL5 for Néstor Girolami.

But the JAS Motorsport-built car is not currently committed for the full season, and although it has already performed well in TCR UK and TCR Italy, it is yet to be considered a proven race winner.

TCR Europe

Comtoyou Racing have committed four Audis for this season – Tom Coronel, last year’s runner-up – leads the quartet of racers and should again be considered a serious title contender.

Viktor Davidovski proved he could win in TCR Europe with a maiden victory last year at Le Castellet, whilst John Filippi nearly won the TCR Europe title in 2020 when he raced with Sébastien Loeb Racing in CUPRA machinery.

Young Belgian Kobe Pauwels is the team’s main unknown, but the former rallycross racer has a strong pedigree and could be well suited to touring car racing.

Returning to TCR Europe this year is Serbian star Dušan Borković after a year away, reuniting with Target Competition in a Hyundai Elantra N.

It means all of the Italian outfit’s drivers from last year have moved on, but Borković is no slouch and in 2018 he was a genuine title threat until late in the year.

Aggressive Team Italia is thus the biggest Hyundai team in 2023, running two Elantras for Nicola Baldan (at least only for the opening wo events) and Swede Mikael Karlsson.

Levente Losonczy was originally earmarked for the seat, but for reasons unspecified, he has been replaced with Baldan in Portugal and Pau, with Losonczy still competing for the team in TCR Italy.

Volcano Motorsport, which previously ran Russian drivers Klim Gavrilov and Evgenii Leonov, and young Spaniard Isidro Callejas, also has an all-new line-up.

Brits Isaac Smith and Lewis Brown, rivals in the 2020 and 2021 MINI Challenge UK, will race for the Spanish-Russian team – in at least the opening round.

Whilst Brown has signed on for a full season, the announcement for 2022 TCR UK runner-up Smith only alluded to the opening event, so if he will be able to commit is currently unclear.

The Spanish RC2 Racing Team has also committed to running a pair of Audis – taking the total for the grid up to eight – but again, not for the entire season.

Brothers Rubén and Felipe Fernández Gil will again be racing in TCR Europe sporadically, with their main focus again expected to be on full-season campaigns in TCR Italy.

Team Clairet Sport has partnered with Garry Rogers Motorsport to run a single Peugeot 308 TCR for young Australian Ben Bargwanna, who will contest two European TCR World Tour events in Portugal and Belgium, before he later takes part in the races on Australian soil later in the year.

A sole Lynk & Co has been entered into TCR Europe, being run by veteran Swede Mattias Andersson’s MA:GP team for his son, Viktor Andersson.

Andersson is a touring car convert, having previously raced in single seaters, but could be one to watch in 2023.

Thursday sees a series of private tests, followed by further practice on Friday. Qualifying and race one take place on Saturday at 09:50 and 14:20 WEST / BST respectively, followed by race two on Sunday at 11:30 WEST / BST.

2023 TCR World Tour (*) / TCR Europe Entry List – Portugal

Driver	No.	Team	Car
Nicola BALDAN	8	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR
Viktor ANDERSSON	10	MA:GP	Lynk & Co 03 TCR
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI	11	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil	12	RC2 Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil	19	RC2 Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II
Kobe PAUWELS	22	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II
Isaac SMITH	23	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II
John FILIPPI	27	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II
Tom CORONEL	34	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II
Lewis BROWN	39	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II
Mikael KARLSSON	48	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR
Dušan BORKOVIĆ	62	Target Competition	Hyundai Elantra N TCR
Ben BARGWANNA	71	Team Clairet Sport – Burson Auto Parts Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR
Norbert MICHELISZ*	105	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR
Thed BJÖRK*	111	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR
Santiago URRUTIA*	112	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR
Frédéric VERVISCH*	122	Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II
Néstor GIROLAMI*	129	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR
MA Qing Hua*	155	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR
Yann EHRLACHER*	168	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR
Rob HUFF*	176	Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II
Mikel AZCONA*	196	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR