» WTCC: New calendar and qualifying rules for 2012 season announced

Organisers of the FIA World Touring Car Championship have announced more details for the 2012 championship season, including a more streamlined championship calendar and further changes to the series’ already overcomplicated qualifying format.

To the calendar first, and next year’s championship season will see all of the European rounds contained on the calendar, while the second half of the championship will feature all of the flyaway races.

Other changes include the dropping of the Belgian and Czech Republic rounds from the calendar, while the United States race at Sonoma is confirmed, along with the Race of Morocco, which makes its return to the calendar after being dropped due to a lack of funding support.

The traditional season-opener at Brazil has now been moved to a July slot, meaning that the round at Monza now assumes the role of season-opener, followed by four more European rounds, with a brief departure to Morocco for the race on the streets of Marrakech.

Despite concerns that the German round would be replaced by an event on Austrian soil, a round on BMW’s home turf will go ahead, with the traditional event at Oschersleben the most likely option.

Disappointingly for racing purists, Porto will play host once again for the Race of Portugal, despite traditionally being altered with either the Estoril or Algarve circuits. This year’s round was almost devoid of overtaking.

After the Hungaroring’s short-notice (but highly popular) debut on the calendar this year, the event has been given permanent billing for next year’s calendar.

Next year’s provisional calendar reads as follows:

11 MAR	Race of Italy	Autodromo Nazionale di Monza
01 APR	Race of Spain	Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia
15 APR	Race of United Kingdom	Donington Park
29 APR	Race of Germany	TBA
06 MAY	Race of Hungary	Hungaroring, Budapest
20 MAY	Race of Morocco	Streets of Marrakech
10 JUN	Race of Portugal	Circuito da Boavista, Porto
22 JUL	Race of Brazil	Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba
23 SEP	Race of United States	Infineon Raceway, Sonoma
21 OCT	Race of Japan	Suzuka International Circuit
04 NOV	Race of China	Shanghai International Circuit
18 NOV	Guia Race of Macau	Guia Circuit, Macau

The series’ much criticised qualifying system is also undergoing another interesting overhaul in a bid to counter the problems the current format has created.

After the tried-and-trusted system of reversing Race 1’s top-eight finishers to determine the starting order for Race 2, organisers brought in a complicated format for 2011: the ten-fastest qualifiers in Q1 were reversed to arrange the top-ten qualifiers for Race 2. The format led to drivers ‘sandbagging’ in Q1, driving quickly enough to make the Q2 cut, but not too quickly as to secure a disadvantageous position on the grid for Race 2.

The 2012 proposal will be that the top-ten runners will be reversed to determine the Race 2 grid, but bonus championship points will be given to the five fastest drivers in the session, to balance out the prospect of ‘sandbagging’.

And in another attempt to prevent drivers from lapping slowly in Q2, twelve drivers will be allowed into the final session, with only the ten-fastest drivers’ positions reversed.

[Images via FIA WTCC Media]