Hi all I just read a article that Toyota, Mazda, Mg and Fiat are looking to enter in the future! My view is this is great as my local series in Australia the supercars only has gm and Ford with no one keen to join . What do you think ?
I wish the future would be so bright, but to be precise, TCR (the organization itself, not to be confused with the series WTCR) is looking for new manufacturer involvement, because most of the manufacturers discontinued their programme, basically Hyundai is the only car maker involved in WTCR which will introduce a new model in 2021, meanwhile the brands of the VW Group stopped their programmes, Honda and Alfa is unsure about the future and etc.
Well, Cupra just released new car this year, Lamborghini isn't going anywhere as far as I know, same for Porsche. This mostly regards Audi and VW itself (and Skoda?) As long as a partnership with WTCR is going, we're probably gonna get all the cars that participate - unless likes of Ferrari or Lamborghini decide to build TCR car for some reason. 2020 package is delayed because of last minute Renault Megane entry and the car wasn't even in development (I don't think it was officially confirmed though)
As @Balrog said, a team or manufacturer building a TCR specification car doesn't necessarily mean it will be entered into the WTCR as TCR racing is customer motorsport (although Lynk & Co, Honda and Hyundai support the teams running their brand cars). RaceRoom has the licence for WTCR but doesn't have the licencing for TCR. This means RaceRoom can't have cars from TCR Europe, TCR Australia, TCR Scandinavia etc. as the licence is held by TCR even though each championship is run by a different promotor organisation. The devs managed to get around this issue with the TCR Russia Ladas by removing anything TCR related from the liveries and releasing the car in the generic TC Cup class. I really like this approach and hope they add a lot more cars to this class.
It's just Volkswagen Motorsport that is shutting meaning no more IDR development, no new Golf TCR (this was planned anyway) and rumours of Extreme E and eTCR won't happen. Audi's motorsport division is still going but is pulling out of Formula E in favour of Dakar and LMDh. There are rumours they may be warming to the idea of another TCR car and I can't see them stopping supporting GT3 customer teams. Cupra are still committed to touring car racing with the Leon TCR and eTCR models.
Fingers crossed then. The Megane would be a nice addition (even though it was plain livery wise), though after that not much more than livery update and driver shuffle this year?!