For the third consecutive year, WTCR has won the championship by a Chinese team

After 6 months of fighting, the 2021 WTCR Touring Car World Cup recently came to an end in Sochi, Russia. This event is a milestone in the history of Chinese racing. In the finale on 28 November, Lynk & Co withstood the pressure to defend the Constructors of the Year championship with 392 points, and young driver Jan Ehrasher won the Drivers of the Year championship with 223 points, the first player to win the driver's championship in this event.

In this world-class touring car event, the Lynk & Co team achieved a historic triple crown, rewriting the history of Chinese car brands in the world's top races. Looking back at the history of the Lynk & Co team in the past three years, this blue "chariot" has become one of the new symbols of Chinese motorsport.

Full of gold Content Three consecutive championships are not easy to come by

As a global motorhome race organized by the FIA, the full name of the WTCR is World Touring Car Cup, which is a new race after the merger of the famous WTCC event and the TCR event, and is listed as the world's top car event alongside F1, WRC, WEC, WRX and FE. In order to reduce costs, reduce the gap between teams and improve the viewing of the event, the FIA has changed the modified car of the past TC1 specification to a TCR car close to a civilian car. TCR racing cars need to be front-wheel drive, and the use of four-door / five-door models, must use a production engine with an exhaust capacity of 1.75-2.0 liters, the maximum output must not exceed 350PS, the performance test of the vehicle is more stringent. After the restructuring, more than 600 TCR-sized cars have competed for the championship in the world, behind which honda, Volkswagen, Audi, Hyundai and other car manufacturers are present.

This year's WTCR Caravan World Cup has more than 10 teams from all over the world, more than 20 drivers to participate in the competition, the participating vehicles are not lacking in German, Japanese and other world-renowned car brands, the eighth stop in Sochi, Russia is the year-end battle of the event. Before the start of the race, the 352-point Lynk & Co team had a considerable lead, but the heavy rain on the day of the race increased the suspense of the race sharply.

Affected by heavy rainy weather, the track is seriously waterlogged, which not only makes it difficult for the car to start, but also greatly increases the difficulty of the race, and a little carelessness will lead to an accident when the car is out of control. But in such a tense state, the Lynk & Co team drivers still strictly implemented the team's orders and completed the race task well. In the end, the Lynk & Co team defended the 2021 WTCR Touring Car World Cup Team of the Year and Drivers Double Crown in advance.

After winning the title with 392 points, the Lynk & Co team achieved the first team triple crown in the history of the WTCR Touring Car World Cup season, and Jan Ehrasher became the driver's annual champion with a total of 223 points this season, and became the first player to win the driver's championship of the year in this event.

This season's WTCR events have hosted a total of 8 races and 16 rounds. Under the new format, each race consists of a qualifying race and two main races, and the difficulty of the track has also increased. For example, the first stop of the Nürburgring circuit in Germany, the 25.378 km long track, 64 "thrilling" corners, changeable weather and other factors make the event full of uncertainty. Although the TCR car based on the Lynk & Co 03 is good enough, under the strict restrictions of the BoP (Performance Balance) of the race, the Lynk & Co car is often "passive" aggravated. However, under such harsh conditions, the Lynk & Co team still achieved a good start in the Nürburgring. For example, in the race in Portugal, although it was once again restricted by the extremely strict BoP, the Lynk & Co team finally won the podium of the sub-station with tacit teamwork, and won an excellent result of one championship, one asian and one season. After that, the Lynk & Co team became more and more courageous, overcoming unfavorable factors such as power output under BoP, body weight and chassis height, and successfully defended the title.

Racing cars are not far from consumers

Some people may think that although the racing car race is wonderful, such a "money-burning" sport is still too far away from ordinary consumers. However, this is not the case. Looking at the mainstream car brands that have stood in the world for many years, whether it is formula racing, motorhome racing or off-road racing, almost all of them have created a glorious history in the field of racing.

Just as the Mercedes-AMG team has dominated F1 events for many years, many of its technologies have been transplanted into civilian cars. And Lynk & Co, which has just won the WTCR team's three consecutive championships, is naturally the representative of the caravan event. That is to say, the Lynk & Co 03 TCR car that is running fast on the track, and the Lynk & Co 03 that consumers can buy, are essentially a model. Of course, because the performance requirements of racing cars and civilian mass production vehicles are different, there will still be differences in engine power, transmission and suspension design, brake performance, interior design and so on. But it is undeniable that the Lynk & Co 03 model that consumers can buy, from the inside out, is the foundation of this 03 TCR car.

Aerodynamics is an extremely complex and important part of a racing car, and the handling of wind resistance greatly affects the speed of the car. The wind-edged front air-holding curtain, flat chassis coating, tail diffuser, fixed-wind sport tail fin design of the Lynk & Co 03 TCR racing car make the wind resistance handled better and also improve the appearance of the vehicle.

The car brand has fed back a lot of the racing technology accumulated from the top events back into its civilian production cars. Such stories have happened to many traditional international car brands, including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, Chevrolet, etc., all of which have left a strong mark on motorsport. Unlike many Chinese brands, which usually launch so-called special edition models simply by changing the styling, Lynk & Co is actually building a high-performance family, which is also inseparable from its investment in the field of racing.

The Lynk & Co team, which has played in the WTCR Touring Car World Cup for three seasons, has become a "blue" whirlwind, which is sought after by fans in China and even around the world. The performance of the team also confirms that Chinese car brands can also become the protagonists of the world's top racing events.

Take racing as a breakthrough to consolidate its own product strength and enhance the influence of the brand. Such stories have happened to many traditional international car brands. Today, the Chinese brand of Lynk & Co is very unique and distinctive in promoting motorsport and landing racing technology, so that the brand can be familiar to Chinese and even global consumers through the breakthrough of racing. At present, the Lynk & Co brand, which has just reached its fifth anniversary, has accumulated sales of more than 600,000 vehicles, and has achieved normalization of vehicle exports to Europe. With the concept of "born global, open and interconnected", Lynk & Co is gradually becoming a truly global brand, "European Plan" continues to advance, has opened 7 Lynk & Co experience stores in Amsterdam, Gothenburg, Berlin, Antwerp and other European cities, and recently announced that the "Asia Pacific Plan" officially landed in Kuwait, and will continue to land in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and other national markets. In the future, Lynk & Co Will also accelerate the process of globalization system and open up markets in Australia, New Zealand and other countries in Oceania. Chinese car brands seek globalization, has been mentioned for many years, through products and racing "two-pronged" Lynk & Co, can be said to be the current Chinese car brand globalization of the "class representative".

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