Renault Sport Racing has announced that the start of the new Clio Cup UK Championship has been postponed until 2021.
The 2020 Clio Cup UK championship, which was due to see the first track running of the fifth-generation 1.3L turbocharged Clio Cup cars, was intended to contest a seven-event calendar with five of the rounds taking place alongside the Intelligent Money British GT Championship.
As has affected much of the global motorsport calendar, COVID-19 is the reason behind the postponement.
“Renault has enjoyed incredible success with its motorsport programmes in the UK for more than 40 years, particularly with the Clio Cup brand,” said RSR Customer Racing Director Benoît Nogier.
“This, therefore, is not a decision that we have taken lightly at all. It is important to stress that our decision is based on feedback from the teams as much as possible.
“There is no escaping the fact that COVID-19 has had consequences for business models – that includes those of the teams in the UK. As stakeholders, we have listened carefully to them and, now in July, clearly they would prefer more time to test the new Clio Cup car being introduced in 2020.”
The championship is keen to allow teams to have the time to test and prepare their cars before the start of racing in 2021.
“We are making sure that track time will be reserved at British GT events for teams to test the new Clio Cup car,” said Benoît Nogier. “This will be at no cost to those teams and drivers talking up this option.
“Our ambition is very much to return with a full Clio Cup UK championship in 2021.”
