The TCR Europe promoter has tweaked the series’ points scoring system for the 2022 season, with points now set to be awarded for both parts of qualifying.
The series will follow the example set by the FIA World Touring Car Cup, where emphasis has been placed on rewarding the fastest drivers.
In TCR Europe, however, points will be awarded for the fastest six drivers in Q1, on the scale of 6-5-4-3-2-1, and the fastest five drivers in Q2, on the scale of 10-7-5-4-3.
The change is designed to “discourage strategies that aim for the tenth position in Q2 that secures the pole position on the reversed grid for race two”.
The series will also remove the ‘drop score’ rule which only came in for 2021, which was in itself designed to aid competitors who may have faced travel issues as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the end, one of the only drivers to be affected by the drop score rule was eventual champion Mikel Azcona, who used it to his advantage.
Points allocations for the races remain unchanged.
TouringCars.Net analysis
Whilst the new system clearly encourages drivers to push throughout the qualifying session, potentially more heavily rewarding the fastest drivers, it is not completely clear how it achieves the goal of discouraging drivers from aiming for the reversed grid pole.
In 2021, tenth position in Q2 gained a driver one point, and then the best grid position for race two of the weekend.
The changes in 2022 will take away the one point earned, but that is the only direct effect, and thus it seems unlikely it will act as a deterrent for aiming for the position.
For drivers with pace up their sleeves, there is now potentially a greater reward to be earned in qualifying.
It means drivers qualifying in fifth or sixth in Q2, which would earn them third row starting positions for both races, would now not score any points.
The change may be a response to the way in which Mikel Azcona claimed the 2021 title. The Spaniard didn’t score a pole until the final meeting in Barcelona, where he was likely to only contest the first race anyway and thus stood to benefit from pole position the most.
For the rest of the season preceding, Azcona, qualified in second, eighth, fourth, sixth and seventh respectively, as he sought to maximise his grid position in both races. Azcona went on to win six of the season’s races.