As well as the incredible battle for the overall drivers’ title in this year’s TCR Europe series, there’s an equally intense fight to be the 2026 TCR Europe Youth Best champion, which is for drivers aged 22-and-under at the start of the season.

Such is the level of young talent in the series, that six drivers in the overall top ten are also in this category, which includes all of the top three drivers in the championship.

While 20-year-old Canadian Nicolas Taylor leads the overall standings heading into the final two race weekends, it’s CUPRA driver Viktor Andersson who has the lead of the young drivers’ classification, as the two classes are scored separately.

With two class wins, Andersson enjoys a 13-point lead, while PMA Motorsport driver Taylor is tied for second with Andersson’s Monlau Motorsport team-mate Marco Butti.
 

Andersson and Taylor both have two class wins each this year from the eight rounds so far, while the other Youth Best race winners are Butti (Hungary Race 1), Alex Ley (Mugello Race 1), Ruben Volt (Spa Race 2), and Junui Park (Hungary Race 2).
 

In fact, Andersson’s class wins are the only two races of the year in which the Youth Best race winner wasn’t also the overall race winner.

Andersson’s class victory in Spa Race 1 was the race where Felipe Fernández claimed his first career victory, and his second class win at Paul Ricard was when he finished behind series stalwart Nicola Baldan.

With ten drivers battling it out for the Youth Best honours this year, as well as the overall title, the state of the next generation of touring car racers is looking strong.
 

Youth Best standings after Hungaroring

1 - Viktor Andersson - 190
2 - Nicolas Taylor - 177
= - Marco Butti - 177
4 - Ruben Volt - 165
5 - Tiago Pernía - 158
6 - Alex Ley - 139
7 - Santiago Concepción - 132
8 - Junui Park - 122
9 - Gabriele Covini - 112
10 - Raphael Fournier - 12