Norbert Michelisz — the popular champion

Norbert Michelisz has won the 2019 WTCR — FIA World Touring Car Cup at a thrilling season finale at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia. The Hungarian is already a superstar in his home country, and enjoys Formula 1-levels of fan support, and that was even before the affable 35-year-old picked up a much deserved, and long overdue first title today.

Michelisz’s World Touring Car career started the same year as mine did — Back in 2010, it was our first full season each in the world’s premier tin-top series.

“Norbi” had already made a pair of one-off appearances, as prize drives from his success in the SEAT León Eurocup in 2008 and 2009, and had taken a startling race victory on his FIA European Touring Car Cup debut at Braga in 2009. Prior to this, he had won the Suzuki Swift Cup in Hungary, a drive he earned through his successes in racing gaming, his game of choice being Grand Prix Legends — making him one of the few of a new generation of drivers to win titles on the road as well as the simulator.

His touring car successes saw the privateer Zengő Motorsport team take the punt and move up into the WTCC full time in 2010, purchasing a SEAT León TDI, and running the blue and green car with key backing from Hungarian electronics firm Dension.

Michelisz regularly punched above his weight in his first season, mixing it with the silently factory-backed SEAT drivers Gabriele Tarquini, Tiago Monteiro and Jordi Gené, despite his privateer status and lack of track experience.

The Hungarian’s season ended perfectly with a much overlooked win at the Guia circuit of Macau, and Zengő invested in a second year programme, now splitting from SEAT and acquiring a BMW 320 TC from RBM, which meant Norbi had to now quickly adapt from front-wheel to rear-wheel drive.

It was soon we were to discover how much of a big deal Norbi was becoming at home.

Despite only being in the WTCC for one year, and with just the one race win under his belt, he was Hungary’s main sporting star, perhaps rising in the shadow of Zsolt Baumgartner’s relative failure to become a Formula 1 star.

We didn’t find this out until we went to Hungary — a round that was only added to the calendar as a last moment replacement following a failed first attempt to take the WTCC to Argentina.

To this day, I have never seen a crowd like I saw at the Hungaroring in 2011. As much as I jest about the popularity of touring car racing compared to Formula 1, that’s usually with a hint of sarcasm, but there’s no sarcasm here when I say even Max Verstappen’s barmy orange army, or the emphatic Italian Tifosi, would struggle to compare to the stampede of 75,000 Hungarians who descended on the circuit that year, grid locking the eastern end of Budapest.

A podium in Race 1 got the crowd on edge and eager for him to go one step higher, but an under pressure Michelisz made a mistake at the start of Race 2 as he battled the rival BMW of Kristian Poulsen for the lead, making contact and was forced to pit for repairs, falling to the back of the order.

Still, the crowd cheered him on every lap, with the now (in)famous air horns blaring out every time he came down the start-finish straight.

A year later, back with the BMW, and the home crowd got their win, with Michelisz winning the second race ahead of the Chevrolet of Alain Menu and the BMW of Mehdi Bennani.

I remember Menu remarking in the press conference afterwards that was one of the best podiums he’d ever been a part of in his career, with such a passionate crowd behind their driver as he stood atop the podium — and arguably we’ve had nothing close since, except for maybe Tiago Monteiro’s home victory earlier this year at Vila Real.

Michelisz would spend three more years with Zengő Motorsport in WTCC, with with the team now starting a relationship with Honda, which put him back in front-wheel drive machinery, and during this period he’d secure two more victories, including another win at home in 2015, but it was clear his capabilities were being held back by effectively running with the Honda B-team of Zengő.

In 2016, Honda made a significant restructure to its line-up, dropping Gabriele Tarquini and recruiting Michelisz and Rob Huff to join Tiago Monteiro in a three-driver factory outfit.

It was a tense season, with Michelisz and Monteiro ending up in a personal battle to be the best Honda driver, while there was nothing either could do about the all-conquering Citroën pair of José María López and Yvan Muller in the French manufacturer’s final season of competition.

The development of a key rivalry with Muller effectively began at the season finale at Losail in Qatar, when Muller allegedly allowed his friend and former team-mate Tiago Monteiro through in the race, which allowed Monteiro to secure third in the standings ahead of Michelisz, with the two drivers separated by just a single point. The pass was off-camera, but both Muller and Monteiro have disputed to this writer that it was anything other than a genuine overtaking move.

It’s 2017 which was the most important year for Michelisz, until now at least. With Huff leaving to join the privateer Münnich Motorsport team, Honda drafted in Ryo Michigami to replace him in a development season, leaving Monteiro and Michelisz as the team’s top two drivers.

With Citroën gone, Honda had their best shot at a title yet — but a restructure at the Polestar Cyan Racing Volvo team showed the Swedish outfit meant business, and with Thed Björk, Néstor Girolami and Nicky Catsburg onboard — Honda weren’t going to have it easy.

Early on, ridiculously early on in fact, Michelisz counted himself out of the title running. Two DNFs at Monza and at his home race left him dejected, and knowing the level of competition, he appeared to genuinely feel he couldn’t fight for the title, already swearing allegiance to help team-mate Tiago Monteiro to beat the Volvos.

Monteiro was taken aback by the gesture, but also told me he felt that it was an early call by the magnanimous Hungarian, and that he expected him to bounce back.

And sure enough, he did. A podium in Germany and a victory in Portugal slowly brought Michelisz back into the mix, but Monteiro was still in the lead, before the season changed dramatically after Monteiro’s horrific testing crash in Spain, which put him out of the rest of the season, and the next.

Michelisz now was thrust into the role of team leader. And supported by new team-mates Gabriele Tarquini and Esteban Guerrieri during the final rounds, the Hungarian bolted up the standings, despite a disastrous weekend in China where the Hondas were excluded for a technical infringement.

A victory in Japan, and a podium in Macau, and Michelisz was in prime position to stop Volvo’s Thed Björk.

Volvo, concerned about the Honda threat, dropped Girolami for the final round and drafted in Yvan Muller out of retirement to support his bid.

This was where we saw a battle both on and off track, as the mental games were in full play, with a few select members of Michelisz’s fan base again laying into Muller before he’d even turned a wheel, with Muller stating that Michelisz should get involved to get them to leave him alone.

A cool head on Michelisz saw him focus on the task ahead, and the Honda driver dominated practice, but a technical issue in qualifying dealt a devastating blow, and his gathered fans and family’s hearts sank as there was nothing he could do and qualified outside the top ten at Losail, a circuit where passing was effectively impossible.

Michelisz wrestled ninth and eighth places from the two races, but that was not enough to stop Björk, who pipped him to the final World Touring Car Championship drivers’ title.

In 2018, in the new WTCR — FIA World Touring Car Cup, Michelisz made a surprise switch to Hyundai, signing to drive for the BRC Racing Team alongside Gabriele Tarquini.

2018 was not Michelisz’s year, with a similarly tough start to 2017 with some early reliability issues, which this time meant he couldn’t stay in the championship battle, which was much more intense in the new TCR era than it ever was in the WTCC years.

Michelisz worked hard for the team though, and worked well with Tarquini to help deliver the Italian the inaugural WTCR drivers’ title. It was often considered that Michelisz had been effectively pushed into a second fiddle role against Tarquini, and that the Italian’s influence at the Italian-centric team was too strong, but…

…come 2019, that all changed. Effectively 2019 was the reverse of 2018 for the pair, with Tarquini having the early-run of back luck. BRC was also now a four-strong team, with touring car specialists Nicky Catsburg and Augusto Farfus drafted in. This season has been an absolute test of Michelisz’s resolve, but by the half-way mark, it was clear he had the handle on all his team-mates, and Hyundai regrouped to place all support behind the Hungarian’s title bid against the new Cyan Racing-run Lynk & Cos, and the very real threat of Esteban Guerrieri and the Honda-equipped Münnich Motorsport team.

Five victories over the course of the season led Michelisz to a much deserved title. The season finale at Sepang, where he battled against title rival Guerrieri in a game of nerves will go down as one of the epic touring car finales — Guerrieri only just losing out after a contretemps with the Cupra TCR of Mikel Azcona, who was focussed on his own battle to be the top newcomer to the championship.

After ten years, Michelisz’s championship victory is a fairytale story of ups and downs. Many will be celebrating in Hungary tonight — but also in the paddock — one of the genuinely nicest guys in the paddock (of a lot of nice guys), has proved those few remaining doubters wrong, and has won a world touring car title in what’s probably the toughest grid of drivers to have ever competed.

Congratulations Norbi.

The final standings

1 — Norbert Michelisz — BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse Hyundai i30 N — 372

2 — Esteban Guerrieri — Münnich Motorsport Honda Civic TCR — 349

3 — Yvan Muller — Cyan Racing Lynk & Co 03 TCR — 331

4 — Thed Björk — Cyan Racing Lynk & Co 03 TCR — 297

5 — Johan Kristoffersson — Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR — 243

6 — Mikel Azcona — PWR Racing Cupra TCR — 226

7 — Néstor Girolami — Münnich Motorsport Honda Civic TCR — 225

8 — Gabriele Tarquini — BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse Hyundai i30 N — 222

9 — Yann Ehrlacher — Cyan Performance Lynk & Co 03 TCR — 222

10 — Jean-Karl Vernay — Audi Sport Leopard Racing RS 3 LMS — 211