This is the sixth season for the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) since its inception in 2005. It is one of four FIA sanctioned world championships along with F1 (Formula One World Championship), WRC (World Rally Championship) and GT1 (GT1 World Championship which was newly added to them, as the sanctioning body decided to give the world championship title to the GT1 class of FIA-GT for 2010. ) GT1 falls into a category of touring car race, as with WTCC, but the former is an endurance race championship while the latter is run in a sprint race format.

The WTCC's race format remains unchanged since its first season and one event consists of two 30 minute (approximately 50km) races on the final day. The championship points, as well as Independent class points, are to be given to the higher-ranking drivers of each race of the day.

"Easy-to-follow" are the exact words to explain the appeal of WTCC races. Even if you don't know much about the race regulations or profiles of participating drivers, you will still be able to enjoy the best part of motor racing by watching the fierce battles right from the moment of start. As they are true sprint races, there is no position change during pit stops or complicated strategies. The faster drivers simply run ahead of others. Period. So you can just focus what's happening on the track.

The hotly fought races are sometimes described as "a combat sport on the circuit" and there are good reasons why you almost always see such close and thrilling racing. The series has some ingenious measures to give more excitement to the races, including performance equalizing rules between two types of cars eligible for WTCC, the Super 2000 cars with 2000cc petrol engines and the Diesel 2000 cars with 2000cc turbo charged diesel engines.

One such example is the reverse grid system. The starting grids for Race 2 are to be decided by the result of preceding Race 1, but the top eight finishers of Race 1 will be placed on their grids in reversed order. This helps to make the second race of the day so unpredictable from the first corner to the checkered flag.
　

Reverse Grid System Result of Race 1 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ Grid for Race 2 8th 7th 6th 5th 4th 3rd 2nd 1st (P.P.)

　
The weight compensation system, which was introduced in 2009 and proved to be very effective, is another example. This adds or reduces the handicapping weight for each car model, not for each driver, according to the average lap times of the models calculated from a somewhat complicated formula.

Though the formula may not look simple and plain, the system certainly has no ambiguity. Aiming to equalize the performance difference due to different transmission systems or different engines, the weight compensations are adjusted for each event and it worked fairly and impartially last year. The virtue of this system is that it doesn't kill the character of each car model too much and still allows the competitors to utilize the strong points of their cars during a race.
　

Compensation Weight System The designated weight is given to each of FIA's vehicle homologation numbers - all cars belong to the same model will run on the same minimum weight. (a) The best lap times of the top two qualifiers of each model. (b) The fastest lap times of each model in two races of an event. → The average of (a) and (b) = (c). (d) The three-event rolling average of (c). ●Then, calculate the difference in (d) between a model and the fastest model. Depending on the difference, the minimum weight of the slower model will be as follows: within 0.3 sec. No compensation more than 0.3 sec. -10kg per 0.1 sec. (up to -60kg) If the difference gets within 0.3 sec. by the weight deduction +10kg per 0.1 sec.

　
The championship point system has been changed for 2010. Now the overall top ten finishers of each race receive the championship point(s), while the top eight did last year. It is the same system with that of Formula One and the winner earns 25 points this year, whereas the winning driver got ten points last year. Otherwise, the 2010 regulations basically remain the same with that of 2009.
　

Championship Point System 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 25 18 15 12 10 8 6 4 2 1

　
The qualifying format is also unchanged from last year. All participating drivers try to put their fastest lap times in the first 20 minute session, Part 1, and only top ten qualifiers in this session are allowed to go on in the second 10 minute session, Part 2, which began after a five minute intermission. The first ten grids for Race 1 are to be decided by the qualifying times in the second session and the grids lower than tenth by the times registered in the first.

ADVAN has been responsible for supplying the single spec controlled tires for the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) since 2006. Although the WTCC's race distances aren't very long, the fierce battles which are rarely seen in other categories put a heavy strain on the tires and the requirement for performance is also at the highest level to be appropriate for the world championship status.

ADVAN set up the dedicated project team to develop the racing tires for WTCC and the fruit of this team's effort has been well-received by the drivers and teams as well as the race organizers. The tires' world-class performance has an established reputation and it is fair to say that they are one of the essential factors to set up the tremendously attractive "combat sport on the race track."

As already mentioned somewhere in this web site, the basic specification of the WTCC tires hasn't been changed since 2006, the year ADVAN began to supply them. While the size of wet tires was slightly enlarged, the slick tires for dry surfaces have remained exactly same as they were in 2006.

Of course, the specifications of tires have been frozen by the request from series organizers, which is aiming at cost reduction for the participating teams. Despite the fact that the race cars are continually improving within the limits of regulations year by year and race by race, the WTCC racing tires produced by ADVAN have had no problems being used by them without any specification change for as long as four seasons. This clearly shows the superior basic ability of the tires.

ADVAN is contracted to supply the WTCC tires until 2012 and now it starts to provide the tires which have better environmental performance.

The international motor sport governing body, Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), recently launched a worldwide environmental educating campaign, "Make Cars Green." By mandating the use of bio-fuel, for example, WTCC is also active to assume environmental responsiveness. In line with this movement, Yokohama Rubber, as an environment friendly company, has succeeded in developing racing tires which have better environmental performance than the preceding model did. Obviously, it can't be an excuse to compromise the performance on race tracks. Now the true environment friendly racing tires, which retain the ADVAN's traditional high performance, come out for racing in WTCC.