Touring Car World Cup (1993–1995) In 1993, with the high popularity of the
Super Touring category, the FIA hosted the FIA Touring Car World Cup — an annual event for touring car drivers hailing from national championships all over the world. The
1993 race at
Monza was won by New Zealand's
Paul Radisich, at the wheel of a
Ford Mondeo ahead of
Nicola Larini's
Alfa Romeo 155, with no manufacturer title awarded. The race was run for two more years, (won by Paul Radisich again in
1994 at
Donington Park in a Ford Mondeo, manufacturer title went to BMW, and
Frank Biela in
1995 at
Paul Ricard in an Audi A4 Quattro, and manufacturer title went to Audi). A similar event was planned for 1996 at the
A1 Ring,
Austria, but was cancelled due to a low number of provisional entries (10 cars). It was never brought back thereafter.
World Touring Car Championship (2005–2017) World Touring Car Cup (2018–2022) On 6 December 2017, during the FIA's World Motorsport Council in Paris, it was approved the formation of the new World Touring Car Cup starting from 2018. The new series would utilize the
TCR rules, which have been in use in numerous national and international touring car racing series, including the
TCR International Series. As a result of the formation of the WTCR, both the WTCC in its current format and the TCR International Series would be discontinued immediately. A new format was introduced, with one qualifying session and one race on the first day and a three-phase qualifying session on the second day and two races, with the first one having the top 10 of the grid reversed. In October 2022 it was reported that the series would be folding in its current format following the 2022 season, with any future change to the series being evaluated and announced at a later date.
Issues The compensation weight system in WTCR – which assigns weight penalties to certain cars for their performance in certain situations – was often criticised, being deemed unnecessary given the series also utilised a
Balance of Performance (BoP) system to equalise the performance of the participating cars. As a result of the system, several teams deliberately ordered their drivers to drive slower than possible in qualifying and/or race sessions in order to minimise the compensation weight penalty; often the teams who were best able to game the system had the best chances of success. The politicking was generally focused on the Balance of Performance, which culminated in Hyundai instructing their customer teams to not participate at the 2020 Race of Germany and Cyan Racing leaving the series halfway through the 2022 season after unsatisfactory BoP.
TCR World Tour (2023–present) Following various difficulties concerning the WTCR format, WTCR was revised into the world tour format starting from 2023 season. TCR World Tour calendar will consist of races picked from various regional and national TCR series world wide unlike the WTCR format which was based on a season calendar primarily independent from other TCR series. ==Rules==