The first-ever season of the FIA ETCR eTouring Car World Cup got underway in May 2022 with its inaugural event on the streets of Pau Ville for the Infinite Reality Race FR.
FIA ETCR grew from its predecessor PURE ETCR to gain FIA World Cup status and would feature the world’s most powerful touring cars with 500KW of power available for qualifying and in-session Power Ups.
All drivers competed with the same Goodyear treaded all-weather tyres and the driver with the most points over the course of the weekend crowned King of the Weekend with points scored in all of the finals, so every corner would count!
The charging process for all cars competing was powered by Hyundai Motor Company HTWO hydrogen twin-fuel-cell generators. These generators used green hydrogen to power the charging units, ensuring that only decarbonised electricity was created and the only by-product of the process was water.
New Format
Two qualifying sessions would take place on the Saturdays of race weekends, with cars setting off from the iconic starting gates at ten-second intervals in a sequence determined by random draw for Q1 and then the finishing order of Q1 for the order of Q2.
Drivers across the three manufacturer teams – CUPRA EKS, Romeo Ferraris and Hyundai Motorsport N – are split into two pools for their running, Pool FAST and Pool FURIOUS with a three-way Battle on track for the Semi and Quarter Finals.
Best qualifying times determined the starting order for the Quarter Finals and drivers then competed in the Semi Finals before heading to the DHL Super Finals where six cars were on track. All drivers progressed to each subsequent Final, with the starting order for each next Battle being determined by the finishing order in the previous one.
Drivers came into race weekends having enjoyed two non-competitive practice sessions on the Friday before each event. The driver scoring the most points across the Quarter, Semi and DHL Super Finals would be crowned King of the Weekend.
Sustainability
FIA ETCR was an on-track pioneer with a remit to show global responsibility in all of its processes in the cause of more sustainable motorsport. From this broad perspective, different actions were implemented – www.fia-etcr.com/sustainability/
