The 2021 TCR Europe series gets underway at the Slovakiaring this weekend, with 22 drivers from five different brands doing battle whilst reigning champion Mehdi Bennani returns to defend his crown.
Bennani has switched from an Audi RS3 LMS, run by the Belgian Comtoyou Racing team, to a new Hyundai Elantra N run by the Sébastien Loeb Racing outfit.
It marks a return to SLR for Bennani, who raced with the French outfit from 2015 to 2019 in both the FIA World Touring Car Cup and, prior to that, the World Touring Car Championship.
Whilst the Elantra N is unproven in TCR competition, there is little doubt that Hyundai Motorsport have developed anything but a top-quality TCR car, and the saloon model follows in the wake of the hugely successful i30 N which came before it.
New car models bring a refreshed feel to the grid
Bennani will be one of four SLR drivers campaigning the new Elantra. He is once again joined by fellow Moroccan Sami Taoufik, whilst Niels Langeveld, a race winner in TCR Germany and former WTCR racer, joins the team along with Italian hotshot Felice Jelmini, a multiple race winner in TCR Italy.
There will also be three new CUPRA Leon Competición cars on track this year, with 2018 champion Mikel Azcona the leading starter for the Spanish brand.
Azcona will be combining his full season in WTCR with Zengő Motorsport with a full season in TCR Europe with Volcano Motorsport, making him one of the busiest drivers this year.
Alongside Azcona will once again be Russian racer Evgenii Leonov, who upgrades to the new car, whilst Zengő Motorsport are entering a new Leon for Hungarian racer Dániel Nagy for the season-opener.
Youngsters making the step up to regional competition
Whilst not a stranger to TCR Europe, Russian Klim Gavrilov will contest the full season this year. The 21-year-old is a multiple race winner in TCR Russia and TCR Italy, and will take on TCR Europe in an Audi RS3 LMS run by the same VRC-Team he has raced with in Russia.
The Slovakian team Brutal Fish Racing is also banking on youth, with JAS Motorsport development driver Jack Young and 16-year-old Isidro Callejas, runner-up in last year’s Renault Clio Cup Spain, racing two of the team’s Honda Civic cars.
Brutal Fish Team Principal Martin Ryba will also remain on board in a third Civic, whilst the team’s former driver Dan Lloyd assumes a management role from afar in the team.
TCR Eastern Europe race winner Jáchym Galáš steps up to TCR Europe in a Hyundai i30 N TCR run by Janík Motorsport, whilst the only other i30 N on the grid will be raced by the experienced Mat’o Homola as his team-mate.
Just two years ago the grid featured no less than ten Hyundai i30 N cars in the season opener, marking a notable change in the dynamic of the grid in a short space of time.
Similarly, whilst there were seven Peugeot 308 TCR cars for last year’s season opener, this year there will be just two, with Team Clairet Sport’s Teddy and Jimmy Clairet flying the French flag for Peugeot.
The outfit had previously run a 308 for Gilles Colombani, but this year the Frenchman will be in a CUPRA TCR, joined by the returning Sylvain Pussier in another of the Spanish cars.
Familiar names returning once again
For the third year in a row, Tom Coronel will take part in TCR Europe, this year in an older-spec Audi RS3. The Dutchman is racing a new-for-2021 Audi in WTCR but will retain the car he used last year with Comtoyou Racing in TCR Europe.
PSS Racing will once again enter a Honda for Macedonian racer Viktor Davidovski, whilst Argentine Franco Girolami joins him for a full-season assault in the outfit’s second Honda Civic.
Absent last year, Dušan Borković returns to the series in 201 with Comtoyou Racing, joining team-mate Nicolas Baert in an Audi RS3 LMS. The Serbian racer swept the floor in last year’s TCR Eastern Europe series, winning every race and claiming every pole position, and he is likely to relish the increased competition offered by the regional series.
Race winners missing from the entry list
Whilst the series undoubtedly features a top-class entry, several notable names will not contest the full season this year.
For UK-based fans, the biggest omission is the lack of Dan Lloyd on the grid, as the Yorkshireman has moved back to the British Touring Car Championship to race a Vauxhall Astra at Power Maxed Racing.
Lloyd was a three-time race winner in the series in 2019 and 2020, battling for the title last year in a Honda Civic.
In terms of race wins, the biggest name missing from the entry list is that of Frenchman Julien Briché. Having raced in the series for the past three years, Briché amassed six victories and was a title contender in 2019, narrowly missing out to Josh Files.
Briché is the most decorated name in terms of series wins to be missing, as no other driver has won more races, but with his focus turning to that of his son Florian’s racing career in French touring cars, a title tilt in TCR Europe appears to be not a priority this year.
Mike Halder was a standout performer last year, the German having made the switch to the series at the last minute following a falling out with officials in the TCR Germany series.
Halder won twice last year to mount a series title challenge, but after targeting a graduation to FIA WTCR, Halder together with sister Michelle have instead opted to compete in the new TCR Spain category in 2021.
Two other siblings not present on the grid this year are Andreas and Jessica Bäckman, with the Swedish duo instead making the move up to FIA WTCR. Andreas had won twice in the series, once in 2019 and again in 2020, as he also proved to be a title contender.
The absence of the Bäckmans is mirrored by that of the team which ran them, with Target Competition not fielding any cars for the first time since the series became a multi-event competition in 2018.
Free practice takes place on Friday at 12:05 CEST and 15:15 CEST on Friday, qualifying and race one are at 10:15 CEST and 15:15 CEST on Saturday, whilst race two takes place at 13:55 CEST on Sunday.