The 2022 World Touring Car Cup was the fifth and final season of the

World Touring Car Cup The FIA World Touring Car Cup (abbreviated to WTCR, referring to the use of TCR regulations) was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It ...

and 18th overall of the series, which dates back to the 2005 World Touring Car Championship. The season began on 7 May at the Circuit de Pau-Ville and ended on 27 November in

Jeddah Corniche Circuit The Jeddah Corniche Circuit ( ar, حلبة كورنيش جدة) is a motor racing circuit built in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia. The circuit staged the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on 5 December 2021 as the penultimate ...

, however multiple event cancellations due to the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

and ongoing quarantine restrictions in Asia. On 1st September 2022, the organiser announced the final version of the calendar, adding

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

and

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

as final venues for the 2022 season. The season was marred by issues with tyres as drivers suffered numerous tyre failures on several rounds. These led to the cancellation of the races at the

Nürburgring The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Formula One, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around t ...

and

Cyan Racing Cyan Racing is the official motorsport partner to Geely Group Motorsport, formerly the Volvo factory auto racing team, and runs the FIA WTCR programme for Lynk & Co, based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The team’s current drivers are Thed Björk, Yv ...

withdrawing from the series midway through the year. Only nine drivers completed the full season. On 14th October 2022, the organiser announced that after five seasons of running under the WTCR guise, the series will end in its current format following the conclusion of the current season, which had two rounds remaining in Bahrain (10–12 November) and Saudi Arabia (25–27 November).

Teams and drivers

Summary

JAS Motorsport JAS Motorsport is an Italian motor racing team and an engineering and manufacturing company. It was founded in 1995 by Paolo Jasson, Maurizio Ambrogetti and Giorgio Schon. The company initially competed with Alfa Romeo in 1996 and 1997. Since 1998, ...

and Honda Racing retained their 2021 drivers –

Attila Tassi Attila Tassi (born 14 June 1999) is a Hungarian racing driver currently competing in the World Touring Car Cup. Having previously competed in the SEAT León Eurocup, TCR International Series and Hungarian Suzuki Cup. Racing career Tassi bega ...

Tiago Monteiro Tiago Vagaroso da Costa Monteiro (; born 24 July 1976) is a Portuguese professional racing driver currently competing in the World Touring Car Cup, driving a Honda Civic TCR for Engstler Motorsport. He competed in Formula One between 2005 an ...

Néstor Girolami Néstor Adrián Girolami (born May 22, 1989 in Cordoba Province), also known by the nickname "Bebu", is an Argentine racing driver. His brother Franco is also racing driver. Career He began competing in karts in 1993. He remained in this dis ...

and

Esteban Guerrieri Esteban Guerrieri (born 19 January 1985 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine racing driver. He was the most successful driver in the WTCR series in terms of wins. Career Formula racing After graduating from karts, Guerrieri competed in various F ...

– for the 2022 season but on 15 January it was announced that

Engstler Motorsport Engstler Motorsport is a private German auto racing team based in Wiggensbach, run by driver Franz Engstler. It has competed successfully in the Asian Touring Car Championship and the ADAC Procar Series. It is sponsored by lubricants company Liq ...

will switch from Hyundai to Honda. *

Mikel Azcona Mikel Azcona Troyas (born 25 June 1996) is a Spanish auto racing driver who competes in the World Touring Car Cup for PWR Racing. He won the TCR Europe Touring Car Series championship in 2018 and 2021 and the WTCR championship in 2022. Racing c ...

will switch from Zengő Motorsport Services KFT to BRC Hyundai N Lukoil Squadra Corse to replace

Gabriele Tarquini Gabriele Tarquini (born 2 March 1962) is an Italian racing driver. He participated in 78 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on May 3, 1987. He scored a single championship point, and holds the record for the most failed attempts to qualify. He h ...

. * 2020 TCR China Touring Car Championship winner

Ma Qing Hua Ma Qinghua () (born 25 December 1987 in Shanghai) is a Chinese people, Chinese racing driver currently competing in the 2022 World Touring Car Cup, World Touring Car Cup with Cyan Racing, Cyan Performance Lynk & Co. Ma became the first China, ...

returned to the series after having last raced in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

for Team Mulsanne, driving a car for Cyan Performance Lynk & Co. * 2020 TCR Europe Touring Car Series winner

Mehdi Bennani Mehdi Bennani ( ar, مهدي بناني, born 25 August 1983) is a Moroccan racing driver who currently competes in the TCR Europe with Sébastien Loeb Racing. He was TCR Europe Champion in 2020 with the Belgian team Comtoyou Racing. He became ...

returned to the series and Comtoyou Racing after having last raced in

for SLR VW Motorsport to replace last season's runner-up

Frédéric Vervisch Frédéric Vervisch ( ; born 10 August 1986 in Kortrijk) is a Belgian racing driver who currently races in the GT World Challenge Europe. Career Early career A winner of numerous karting championships, Vervisch moved to auto racing in 2003 m ...

. * Dániel Nagy returned to the series and

Zengő Motorsport Zengő Motorsport is a Hungarian motor racing team founded by Zoltán Zengő. They currently compete in the World Touring Car Cup and others TCR championships. The team also used to compete in the SEAT León Eurocup, where they won driver's titl ...

after having last taken part in the series in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, to replace Bence Boldizs.

Mid-season changes

withdrew from the Race of Italy, citing tire safety concerns. Cyan Racing would later suspend their WTCR program with immediate effect for the same reason in August 2022 and not see out the season.

Calendar

The preliminary race calendar was published by the championship management on 26 November 2021. On 26 February 2022, WTCR Race of Russia was suspended due to the ongoing

. On 19 March 2022, the calendar was updated again with the cancellation of the Czech and Russian rounds. A further update was ratified on 14 April 2022, with the addition of two rounds at Vallelunga and Anneau du Rhin. Another update was made on 29 June 2022 by cancelling Asian rounds due to the logistical challenges and quarantine restrictions in Asia: An update was provided on 1 September 2022 by adding races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to host the final rounds of the championship. The following rounds were cancelled due to the ongoing

and logistical challenges in Asia:

Compensation weight handicaps

Compensation weight handicaps were given to the participating cars based on their best qualifying lap times in the previous two events, with 40 kg being the maximum penalty. Hyundai customer team BRC Racing Team was in particular noted to have gamed the system by intentionally performing worse than possible in qualifying to avoid being penalised.

Results

Championship standings

;Scoring system ;Scoring system for WTCR Trophy

Drivers' championship

Teams' championship

WTCR Trophy

Eligible for drivers racing without manufacturer support.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:World Touring Car

World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

WTCR

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...