The waiting will come to an end for touring car fans this weekend as the much anticipated World Touring Car Championship finally gets underway at Monza.
For the opening round of the season, 33 drivers are set to do battle around the famous Italian circuit with six different manufacturers represented on the grid with the championship – and the world title that goes with it – the obvious attraction for those involved.
Heading to Monza there is little doubt who everybody wants to beat. As ‘defending champion’ following his ETCC title success in 2004, Brit Andy Priaulx returns for a crack at the World Title in his
BMW 320i but as was the case last season he can expect strong competition from an hugely talented and experienced field.
Much of that competition will come from inside the BMW camp as was the case during the final season of ETCC competition. Jorg and Dirk Muller came close to the title in 2004 with the BMW Team Deutschland squad and will look to build on a promising test at Monza last month when they finished third and fourth in the timesheets. The other two ‘works’ BMW drivers, Alex Zanardi and Antonio Garcia will also look for a good start to the season – especially Zanardi competing in front of his home fans.
However if the test at Monza is anything to go by then Alfa Romeo are likely to be the team to beat this weekend. With the addition of BTCC champion James Thompson to the team, the Italian manufacturer will launch a four pronged assault on the championship in 2005 – and signalled its intent from the off during the media day and launch by taking four of the top six places on the timesheets.
