A championship with no races of its own. It borrows rounds from TCR series across the world, sends a handful of professionals to each one, and lets the locals score against them.
The FIA TCR World Tour is an international touring car championship for TCR cars, created by the WSC Group for 2023 to replace the World Touring Car Cup. It works unlike most championships: rather than promoting its own race meetings, it takes a set of rounds from regional and national TCR series around the world. A small group of full-season World Tour entries travels to each one and races the local competitors — and both score World Tour points. 2026 is the fourth season, and the twelfth of international TCR competition since 2015: eight rounds and twenty races, four rounds in Europe and four in Asia. Because every round is hosted by a different series, the number of races and the grid rules change from event to event.
The TCR idea came first, and the championship second. In 2014 the WSC Group, led by former World Touring Car Championship manager Marcello Lotti, published a low-cost ruleset for front-wheel-drive racing versions of four- and five-door road cars. It was called TC3 until the FIA approved it that December and it was renamed TCR. Championships adopted it quickly, and by the 2020s dozens of series worldwide were running the same car.
The international layer above them was less stable. The TCR International Series ran from 2015, then the FIA licensed the rules as WTCR for its World Touring Car Cup from 2018. On 14 October 2022 it was reported that the WTCR would not continue in that format, blamed on logistical difficulties following the COVID-19 pandemic — flying one grid around the world had become unaffordable.
WSC announced the TCR World Tour the same day, with a different answer to the same problem: don’t move the paddock, visit other people’s races. The 2023 calendar was assembled from rounds of TCR Europe, the Italian Superturismo Championship, TCR South America, TCR Australia — including Mount Panorama — and TCR China.
The FIA elevated it to a full FIA competition for its second season in 2024. Kumho supplies the control tyre and gives the championship its full name: the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour.
One car specification, dozens of championships, and a world title assembled out of other series' race weekends.
The point of TCR is that the very same race car is eligible everywhere the rules are used. A team can run its car at home all year and enter a World Tour round without building anything new — which is what makes borrowing rounds possible at all.
The World Tour promotes no events of its own. Each round is an existing meeting of a regional or national series — TCR Europe, TCR Italy, TCR Asia, TCR China, TCR South America — and the local competitors score World Tour points alongside the visitors.
Because the host series sets it, the number of races per round varies: two at Misano, three at Valencia, two at Paul Ricard and Vila Real, three in Korea and China, two at Macau. Vila Real ran a reversed grid for race two and a mandatory joker lap.
The ETS Guest Star Trophy is contested among drivers who are not doing the full season, which is most of any given grid. Viktor Andersson had won five in a row by mid-2026, including all three races at Valencia.
Qualifying scores World Tour points in its own right — 15 for pole, then 10, 8, 6, 4 and 2 — so a bad Saturday costs more than grid position.
Every race pays the same scale, 30 for a win down to one for fifteenth. There is no shorter sprint and no half-points race.
Race length, grid rules and any joker lap come from the series hosting the round. A World Tour weekend at the Macau Guia Circuit does not look like one at Misano.
Full-season World Tour entries are marked separately on the entry list and are not eligible for points in the local series they are visiting.
| Pos | Race | Qualifying |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 30 | 15 |
| 2nd | 25 | 10 |
| 3rd | 22 | 8 |
| 4th | 20 | 6 |
| 5th | 18 | 4 |
| 6th | 16 | 2 |
| 7th | 14 | – |
| 8th | 12 | – |
| 9th | 10 | – |
| 10th | 8 | – |
| 11th | 6 | – |
| 12th | 4 | – |
| 13th | 3 | – |
| 14th | 2 | – |
| 15th | 1 | – |
The World Tour classification includes drivers from the host series, so a local competitor who beats the visiting professionals takes World Tour points off them. It is the mechanism that makes a borrowed round a world championship round rather than an exhibition.
Every race in a round pays the same scale. Qualifying pays only the top six.
| Round | Circuit | Country | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Misano World Circuit | Italy | 8–10 May |
| 2 | Circuit Ricardo Tormo | Spain | 12–14 June |
| 3 | Circuit Paul Ricard | France | 4–5 July |
| 4 | Circuito Internacional de Vila Real | Portugal | 11–12 July |
| 5 | Inje Speedium | South Korea | 2–4 October |
| 6 | Chengdu Tianfu International Circuit | China | 16–18 October |
| 7 | Zhuzhou International Circuit | China | 23–25 October |
| 8 | Guia Circuit | Macau | 19–22 November |
Rounds one to four are hosted by European series and rounds five to eight by TCR Asia, TCR China and the Macau Guia Race. Misano, Paul Ricard and Chengdu are new to the World Tour in 2026; Macau has appeared on every calendar since 2023. Earlier seasons also went to Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Morocco, the United States and Australia — Mount Panorama included.
WSC Group, led by Marcello Lotti, publishes a low-cost ruleset for front-wheel-drive versions of four- and five-door road cars. Called TC3 until the FIA approves it in December and it becomes TCR.
The TCR International Series launches, and national and regional championships start adopting the rules.
The FIA licenses TCR rules under the WTCR name for its world-level cup, with the specification frozen at the end of 2019.
On 14 October it is reported the WTCR will not continue in that format, blamed on logistical difficulties following the pandemic. WSC announces the TCR World Tour the same day.
Nine events borrowed from TCR series in Europe, Italy, South America, Australia and China, Mount Panorama among them. Norbert Michelisz takes the first title.
The championship becomes the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour in its second season. Michelisz wins again.
Yann Ehrlacher takes the title and Cyan Racing a third consecutive teams' championship, all three with the Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR.
Eight rounds and twenty races, the first calendar confined to two continents. Cyan races as Geely Cyan Racing with the Geely Preface.
The first international championship for TCR cars, promoted by WSC and the direct ancestor of the World Tour.
The FIA licensed the TCR rules as WTCR for its world-level cup. The specification was frozen at the end of 2019 and cars needed an FIA passport on top of TCR homologation.
WSC's replacement, built from rounds of existing TCR series instead of its own events. Nine rounds on five continents in the first season.
FIA competition status from the second season, with Kumho as title partner and control tyre supplier.
Leads the 2026 championship on 230 points, ten clear of Mikel Azcona, after taking the World Tour's first hat-trick — all three races at Valencia. The Uruguayan came to touring cars from American open-wheel racing, where he won the 2015 Pro Mazda title and raced in Indy Lights, and now drives for Geely Cyan Racing.
Won the first two World Tour titles, in 2023 and 2024, and the 2019 World Touring Car Cup before that. Third in 2026 with two wins from the first nine races.
The reigning champion, and winner of the World Touring Car Cup in both 2020 and 2021. Son of Cathy Muller and nephew of the four-time world champion Yvan Muller.
Uruguayan, and the first driver to win all three races of a World Tour round — at Valencia in 2026. Formerly Pro Mazda champion and an Indy Lights racer.
Ten points off the 2026 lead, with the win at Paul Ricard. Won the WTCR in 2022 and TCR Europe in 2018 and 2021.
Second in the World Tour in 2024 and 2025. The 2017 World Touring Car Champion, and a three-time Scandinavian champion before that.
Not a full-season entry, but had won five consecutive ETS Guest Star Trophies by mid-2026 and scored his first World Tour podium at Vila Real.
Third in the 2025 championship with GOAT Racing's Honda Civic Type R. Was the WTCR's most prolific race winner and its 2019 runner-up.
A Geely Cyan Racing driver, and winner of the second race of the 2026 season at Misano.
The WTCR flew a single grid between continents and the pandemic made that unworkable. The World Tour's answer was structural rather than financial: stop moving the paddock, and go to races that are already happening.
Because local entries score World Tour points, a visiting professional can be beaten to a championship position by somebody who races that circuit every weekend. That is not a side effect of the format — it is the format.
Cyan Racing won the teams' championship in each of the first three seasons with the Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR, and had the champion or the runner-up every year. For 2026 the team races as Geely Cyan Racing with the Geely Preface — and its driver Santiago Urrutia leads.
Norbert Michelisz won the first two World Tour drivers' titles with this team, in 2023 and 2024, when it was entered as BRC Racing Team — though Cyan Racing has taken the teams' championship in all three seasons. It runs Michelisz and Mikel Azcona in 2026, second and third in the standings with three of the first nine race wins. Its Elantra N was re-homologated in late 2025 with a larger turbo, lifting it from 97.5% to 100% of the reference power level.
An international touring car championship for TCR cars, created for 2023 to replace the World Touring Car Cup. 2026 is its fourth season: eight rounds and twenty races.
It does not promote its own events. Each round is an existing race meeting of a regional or national TCR series, and the local competitors score World Tour points alongside the visiting full-season entries.
On 14 October 2022 it was reported that the World Touring Car Cup would not continue in that format, blamed on logistical difficulties following the COVID-19 pandemic. WSC announced the TCR World Tour the same day.
Yes, since its second season. It received FIA competition status for 2024 and is officially the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour.
A racing version of a four- or five-door production car: front-wheel drive, a turbocharged engine of 1.75 to 2.0 litres making around 355 PS, and a minimum weight of 1,250 kg with a production gearbox. The specification was created by WSC and approved by the FIA in December 2014.
Twenty, across eight rounds. The number per round varies because the host series sets the format — two at Misano, three at Valencia, three at each of the Chinese and Korean rounds, two at Macau.
Italy, Spain, France and Portugal, then South Korea, China twice and Macau. It is the first World Tour calendar confined to Europe and Asia; earlier seasons visited Australia, South America, North America and Morocco.
Thirty for a race win, then 25, 22, 20 and down to one for fifteenth, with every race paying the same. Qualifying scores separately: 15 for pole, then 10, 8, 6, 4 and 2.
Yes — that is the point of the format. Competitors from the host series are classified in the World Tour standings. Full-season World Tour entries, conversely, cannot score in the local series.
Yann Ehrlacher, who won the 2025 title for Cyan Racing Lynk & Co.
Santiago Urrutia on 230 points, ten ahead of Mikel Azcona, after four of the eight rounds.
Norbert Michelisz, with the first two in 2023 and 2024.
A separate classification for drivers who are not contesting the full season — which on a borrowed-round calendar is most of the grid at any given event.
WSC Group — World Sporting Consulting — the London-registered company behind the TCR rules, led by its president Marcello Lotti, a former World Touring Car Championship manager.
Kumho control tyres. Kumho is also the championship's title partner.
Independent fan guide: the World Tour calendar and its round formats are set with the host series and change from season to season. Verify current sporting information with the championship directly. Championship, team and driver names belong to their respective rights holders.
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