Cupra: Strong racing year with sustained success 🎥
FORWARD ROLL 2021 was a spectacular motorsport year for the Spanish brand. Cupra competed in two electric racing series and emerged as champion in the new ETCR. There were also numerous successes with conventional TCR touring cars.
At the end of the first season in the ETCR, Mattias Ekström and Cupra Racing were jubilant. But before that, there were hair-raising scenes.
In the beginning, there was the vision of making motorsport more sustainable. In addition, there were the goals of emotionally charging electromobility, being innovative and, of course, also fast and successful. After the first seasons in the PURE ETCR and Extreme E racing series, the first conclusion is clear: mission accomplished.
Consistency at a high level
In the inaugural season of the PURE ETCR for all-electric touring cars, a Cupra driver was crowned "King of the Weekend" on three out of five race weekends. The Spaniard Mikel Azcona was the fastest man twice, Mattias Ekström once, who also surfed onto the podium three other times.
In the end, consistency at a high level also tipped the scales in favor of the Swede. Ekström, who drove the e-racer with up to 500 kW (680 hp) for Cupra Racing, won the drivers' title and was crowned "King of the Season. Ekström, Azcona and their two teammates Jordi Gené and Dániel Nagy also clinched the manufacturers' title with the Zengő Motorsport team against competition from Romeo Ferraris (Alfa Romeo Giulietta ETCR) and Hyundai (Veloster ETCR).
A success all along the line that also helps Cupra with another pillar of the company: electromobility.
Head of Development Xavi Serra: "Our victories in the PURE ETCR allow us to show the world that electric technology can generate competitive and exciting touring car races. Furthermore, they allow us to continue learning and developing the technology we will see in road cars in the future."
A tree for every kilometer
For Cupra, however, the PURE ETCR, which will have FIA World Cup status from 2022, is not just about performance on the track, but also about sustainability in motorsport. For example, the PURE ETCR and the participating manufacturers have committed to planting a tree for every kilometer driven in the past season.
A total of 4691 trees were thus collected. This step was taken as part of the so-called Canopy Project, a global reforestation program of the "Earthday.org" initiative.
Ups and Downs in Extreme E
Cupra has also achieved some goals in the Extreme E, which is also being held for the first time. The racing series for purely electric SUVs aims to draw attention to the consequences of climate change by holding races at special locations around the world. In 2021, races were held in Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Greenland, Sardinia and the United Kingdom.
Each race weekend therefore focused on different climate change issues. The participating brands such as Cupra and the ABT Cupra XE team with the two drivers Jutta Kleinschmidt and Mattias Ekström campaigned for sustainable projects on site.
For example, the finale in southern England helped the British Army reduce its carbon footprint as it aims to become carbon neutral by 2050 and stand for more sustainable military operations. Furthermore, Extreme E supported the charity "National Trust" with the "Dorset Legacy Programme".
On the 2022 title hunt with the Tavascan
The former Dakar Rally winner and the former rallycross world champion and DTM champion were always competitive in the 400 kW (544 hp) e-Cupra ABT XE1, but unfortunately not always blessed with the necessary racing luck.
The duo reached the semi-finals in four of the five races, and in Sardinia in October they finally won their first trophy with second place. In the final standings for the season, ABT Cupra XE finished fifth.
In 2022, Cupra wants to compete for the title. This year with an evolutionary stage of the electric SUV, the Cupra Tavascan Extreme E. The driver has not yet been determined.
Successful customer athletes
In other global racing series, Cupra teams and their drivers achieved the best customer sport results in the brand's history. In total, they scored 94 victories, 59 of them in the new TCR model Cupra Leon Competición. Eight drivers' titles and four team titles were the result.
The spearhead was Mikel Azcona, who competed as a regular driver in several racing series. In the PURE ETCR, the Spaniard finished third overall; in the WTCR, the FIA Touring Car World Cup, he finished seventh overall with one victory and four further podium places; and in the TCR Europe, he crowned his personal season with the title, although he was only able to compete in eleven of 14 races due to scheduling conflicts.
24-hour victory for Bern team
Incidentally, the first major international victory of the season last year came from a Swiss team. TOPCAR sport from Uetendorf won the hotly contested TCR category at the 24 Hours of Dubai on January 15-16, 2021, with a proven Cupra TCR DSG. At the wheel, the Swiss Fabian Danz, team boss Ronny Jost and Adrian Spescha alternated with the Germans Benjamin Leuchter and Patrick Sing.
As every year, the race counted as the first and most important round of the 24H Series, which was later won by another Swiss team, Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing, as in 2019 and 2020 with a different corporate brand (Volkswagen) and thus related technology.
