The promoter of the FIA World Touring Car Cup has confirmed that, contrary to a press release issued in February, there will be no WTCR Trophy Europe awarded in 2022.
Discovery Sports Events had released a statement saying that a new award would be created for 2022 and given to the best-performing driver at the European rounds of WTCR.
However, a clarification was issued last week, confirming that the award would not in fact be handed out this year:
“Contrary to a communication issued on February 18, Discovery Sports Events, promoter of the WTCR − FIA World Touring Ca Cup, confirms there will be no WTCR Trophy Europe awarded in 2022,” said the statement from the WTCR promoter.
“More information about the WTCR Trophy, created for the 2020 season, will be announced in due course.”
The clarification has been welcomed by the TCR Europe series, which also released a short statement today, adding:
“The statement means that there will no longer be a WTCR Trophy Europe run within the frame of the WTCR and that TCR Europe remains the only series to award a European title for the TCR category.”
TCR Europe ran as a full season of events for the first time in 2018 and has enjoyed consistently strong grid numbers ever since, at times boasting larger grids than WTCR.
The announcement has likely been made to assuage possible concerns from the TCR Europe promoter that including a Europe-specific award within WTCR could have weakened the profile of the European series.