World Touring Car Cup (WTCR): 2018-2022
Acting as the successor to both the World Touring Car Championship and the TCR International Series, the World Touring Car Cup was the world's top-flight touring car championship between 2018 and 2022. Other than the change in name and adoption of the TCR regulations though, this was effectively just a continuation of the WTCC.
Things started well for WTCR with the first two seasons providing plenty of action, enjoying healthy grids filled with top quality drivers and a variety of different cars. However, it didn't take long for signs of potential trouble to appear.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, these primarily arose regarding the Balance of Performance employed by the TCR regulations. The cars were balanced to be as equal as possible, but there was also a 'compensation weight' system in play. This essentially aimed to peg back a car if it was dominating too much, but it created a bit of a mess when combined with the existing BoP.
Teams often employed carefully calculated strategy to score as many points as possible while being hit with little compensation weight, which turned into something of a farce; drivers would actively avoid trying to gain positions in order to limit the impact of the compensation weight. The first major flashpoint for the championship came in 2020 at the Nürburgring, when Hyundai instructed their customer teams not to participate over grievances around the BoP.
Tensions flared again in 2022 when Lynk & Co hit out at the championship's BoP, as well as the tyres used by the series, after their cars suffered tyre failures. This culminated in the brand withdrawing its team mid-season, which effectively sealed the fate of WTCR come the end of the year.
For 2023 the championship was replaced once again by the TCR World Tour. WTCR produced some brilliant racing with many top drivers, but ultimately it was rather overshadowed by its frustratingly prevalent politics.