A large article with the whole line-up and all the silly rumours - not totally up to date though: http://auto-racing.speedtv.com ... n-continues-to-take-shape

A lot of free agents around(Servia, Wilson, Hinch, Bourdais, etc), here's where they could go: http://auto-racing.speedtv.com ... driver-market-heating-up/

Quote from TFalke55 :

Some drivers are already confirmed, A short look over the teams and drivers:

I don't think Viso and Alesi have been confirmed yet.

Pagenaud has been confirmed yesterday.

Quote from GreyBull [CHA] :

33 - Yann Laprevotte (GreyBull [CHA]) - France - Tiger Express Motorsports

Withdrawing, sorry.

So, according to Autosport, it looks like that FIA GT1 will go from an F1 style knockout qualifying session with 2 driver per team, to a more classic straightaway session with 1 driver per team.

Reason?

Quote :

Stephane Ratel has proposed changing qualifying because he believes that the system used in 2010-11 put off lesser drivers who were likely to bring a budget to a team. He explained that in the current economic climate it was important to encourage more funded drivers into the series.

Last edited by GreyBull [CHA], Thu, 8 Dec 2011 14:29.

Quote from RiseAgainstMe! :

Seems odd to have races in Austria and Hungary, and Spain and Portugal, but not one up north in Netherlands or in England.

Yep, that was my point, the people up North used to have Magny-Cours, Brands/Donington, Spa, Zolder and Oschersleben over the last few years... But they're all gone now.

Big lack of races in Western Europe. Austria and that's it. Meh.

Huge PR drama between Nykjaer and his team, looks like we won't see the Dane in 2012: http://www.touringcartimes.com/article.php?id=7072

Quote from GreyBull [CHA] :

teamName: Tiger Express Motorsports
...
number: 78

.

Quote from Mustafur :

S2000 whilst cheap has pretty much killed the european touring car scene.

Its not even 1/10th of how good Super Touring was.

Oh yea, +1 dude. Super Touring was the real deal!!

Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we make a brand new Super Touring champ together? First step: go find me 10 manufacturers able AND willing to afford a 2-3 cars supertouring program. Hell, this should be a child's game, the economy isn't that bad these days, I'm sure they all have millions to waste on marketing crap of that kind!

Once it's done, contact me back. I'd be delighted to give a help with race directing!

Quote from tinvek :

Grosjean has been testing with BMW, so that may be hinting that he's not going to get an F1 seat

BMW has been testing everyone and his dog lately, so who knows if he'll end up having a DTM race seat.

I still hope he gets another chance in F1 anyway, he's been really stellar over the last 2 years.

Quote from NSX_FReeDoM :

Just look at his races in the past few years. Every time he has a chance to score some points, he crashes.

Hmm, guess I should've paid more attention at the midfield action then... Examples please?

Quote from Sueycide_FD :

One uses speed and grace to pass

Please enlighten me and show me the grace hidden in the DRS

Quote from TFalke55 :

Apart of that, I do not remember any motorsport series called World Series.

World Series by Renault? Except that they haven't been further than Eastern/Central Europe for quite a while now.

Quote from gezmoor :

Never been keen on Sutil personally. Too much of a crasher and basher for my liking.. wasn't at all surprised to here him and Hamilton are personal friends.

Sutil, crasher/basher? Apart from that incident with the Genii bloke, can't recall of anything wrong about him both on and off track. Which incidents are you refeering to?

HRT has confirmed De La Rosa a few days ago.

Force India will most likely be Di Resta and Hulkenberg according to Autorsport.

Quote from TFalke55 :

NGTC, don't yet know what to think of it yet. It's too fresh and it destroys the background idea of the Super 2000 of being able to use a Super 2000 car in every european Touringcar series.

I'd say they have proven to be a cheaper and competitive alternative to S2000 in BTCC, it was pretty much refreshing to see new faces with very little budget challenging the old guns, even if it was mostly due to the odd balancing.

After all the S2000 aren't thrown away yet, AFAIK they are still allowed 2 more years in BTCC, even if the balancing won't go on their favor obviously.

And anyway there are very few strong national touring car series left in Europe at the moment, no? We have BTCC. We have STCC, but who knows for how long it will survive with the arrival of TTA. TTA isn't really touring car spec wise, it has widely been described as a "DTM-light spec series". There's that German S2000 championship, whatever it's called, but IIRC it draws something like 7-8 cars grid, probably not worth mentionning. ETCC is now back to a single event, probably not mentionning either, with 10ish S2000, and only 3-4 occasional big guns.

Quote from rockclan :

I'll start first, give me 2 to 3 days.

Can't wait

Quote from TFalke55 :

By the way, there are speculations that there will be a new technical rulebook for 2015, because Lotti said in an interview these cars will be raced for another 3 years. German motorsport journalists already dreaming of WTCC becoming more V8Supercar-ish in terms of power and optics. However, he only said that the cars will be raced for 3 years, not what happens afterwards.

Cmon people, we want touring cars, not an Xth GT championship.

NGTC plox

Quote from GreyBull [CHA] :

teamName: Tiger Express Motorsports
manager: Yann Laprevotte (GreyBull [CHA]
vice-manager: Karl Raudsepp (TypeRacing)
car: XRR
class(es): GT300
driver:
- {GreyBull [CHA], Yann Laprevotte, France}
- {TypeRacing, Karl Raudsepp, Estonia}
- {CARRERA GT, Lims Chebbi, France}
- {nikopdr, Niko Puntola, Finland}
- {mannef1, Oskari Rinne, Finland}
- {proa2414, Vince Verstreken, Belgium}
- {Swiss-Spirit, David Jundt, Switzerland}
- {LianeS, Liane Solfrank, Germany}
- {vourliotis, Chris Vourliotis, Greece}
- {zippytheone, Tom Parker, England}
- {andro., Andris Pavars, Latvia}
- {Sn1p, Matīss Linde, Latvia}


Possibly with a GT500 entry to come later, we will see.

Updated, added Matīss Linde.

Quote from TFalke55 :

Yes I meant Menu.

From what the German commentators said is that it looks pretty good though not confirmed, that Polestar would continue in WTCC with maybe a second C30, that was what the German Eurosport team got as information. However unclear if with full backing of Volvo or not. If Volvo would enter as full manufactor team, they'd choose a different car as the C30 won't be produced after 2013. It is even more strange that the announcement, planned for August and the other expected announcement at the Shanghai race did not happen.

I hope Ford comes back stronger then their (only on paper) works entry in 2005 by Kissling.

Dahlgren joins Volvo's TTA squad: http://www.touringcartimes.com/article.php?id=7065

Very bad signs for Volvo's future in WTCC.

Quote from Rappa Z :

http://thecheckeredflag.mobsta ... ari%26q%3Dbottas%26sa%3DN

Bottas to be Williams reserve driver next year. He's suppose to get the majority of Friday test sessions and by the sounds of it he could very well be in the hot seat in 2013.

Great news

Quote from JPeace :

Also gets a GP2 drive with Lotus ART to keep him busy I'm sure.

Lotus ART has announced its line-up long ago(Calado-Gutierrez).

I doubt it'd be a good idea for him to do both F1 practice and GP2 on the same week-ends, sounds like an overwhelming schedule. And since he's quite on the hot spot at the moment, not being on top straight away in GP2 will most likely hurt his reputation. Going straight from GP3 to GP2 isn't so easy, ask Gutierrez - even if Bottas has a lot more experience of course.

I'd rather see him in WSR, à la Ricciardo, if you want. AFAIK the dates aren't clashing, and he's done a test a few weeks ago already, can't recall with which team.

Quote from Mustafur :

Now for some really bad news, one of the biggest teams on the Grid Newman/Haas racing has quit indycar due to economic Reasons: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96607

For those who don't know them they are the team that Bourdais won hes 4 consecutive Champcar titles with.

shit :/

Gutting news, but apart from that the grid shaping up still looks pretty much decent...

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com ... -continues-to-take-shape/


Someone, take Servia and Hinch, pretty please...

Last edited by GreyBull [CHA], Fri, 2 Dec 2011 11:24.

33 - Yann Laprevotte (GreyBull [CHA]) - France - Tiger Express Motorsports

unsure

teamName: Tiger Express Motorsports
class: GT2
car: XRR
number: 78
drivers:
- {TypeRacing, Karl Raudsepp, Estonia}
- {andro., Andris Pavars, Latvia}
- {Kova., Alexis Georg, France}
- {zippytheone, Tom Parker, England}
- {Swiss-Spirit, David Jundt, Switzerland}
- {vourliotis, Chris Vourliotis, Greece}

Last edited by GreyBull [CHA], Sat, 7 Jan 2012 14:58.

Quote from JazzOn :

lol, no problems, just use it and i am happy... otherwise the time was wasted

I'm not driving a lot these days, but I will for sure

Ok, so here we are for the proper semis. Pile-up in the formation lap, half of the left lane involved to some extend. Result, got a meatball flag before the race had even started. The joys of public tournaments for you:rolleyes:

I guess Marius has wrapped it up already, being the only one to bother showing up for the semis

http://members.iracing.com/mem ... =4476379&custid=58649

Last edited by GreyBull [CHA], Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:08.

Seat Sport comes back as a "customer supply team" for 2012, and considers a factory program for 2013.

http://www.touringcartimes.com/article.php?id=7042

That finale left a rather sour taste in my mouth. Little green flag running, lots of incidents - several of them caused by ringers - and a rather predictable outcome at the outright championship.

Shame that the local boys O'Young and Couto failed again to make the best out of their fantastic pace here... But they cannot blame anyone but themselves this time.

Anyway, I'm glad Muller won, he was probably the strongest man this year again, IMHO. Huff really stepped-up this season though. The guy had some bad luck also, and could've got a lot more points without all the odd incidents he got involved in, especially with Tarquini at Zolder and in China. On another note, he seemed to be better than Muller at being slow in Q1... And he probably got a big amount of race 2 points thanks to this. I guess he's not the one to blame though, making the best out of the ruleset is part of the game. Big thumbs down to the FIA for making this kind of absurd sporting regulations anyway.


Anyway, a mention to the F3 GP thriller... Lots of incidents here too, but some fantastic fights up front.

Quote from TFalke55 :

Couto and Muller became the Hamilton-Massa-pair of the weekend with one accident in the qualifying and one accident in race 1.

You mean Menu, right?

Quote :

Looking foreward to next year with three semi-factory Fords, maybe a second or a third Volvo.

From what I gathered on the net, Volvo's presence next year is far from being a done deal. And Dahlgren's crash-filled season end probably hasn't improved the situation.

It's a shame, because that car definitely has the potential to challenge the Chevy on outright pace. Volvo probably has a chance to have a crack at the title next year if they decide to have a full program, and hire one or two world class drivers.

Anyway, as much as I hate to see them leaving the BTCC, Ford's come back is a great thing for the WTCC. Arena have proved they can beat RML/Chevy in Britain, although on different and arguabily unbalanced engine regulations.

Last edited by GreyBull [CHA], Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:30.