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  • Racecar Engineering

    Taking charge

    Nov 01, 2019 13 minutes
    By GEMMA HATTON
    ‘This will put some more engineering into the BTCC and it will be interesting to see how the teams up and down the pit lane cope with the new challenge’

    Electrification continues to sweep across the world of motorsport, with the BTCC being the latest championship to announce that it will be going hybrid, in 2022. Hybridising this series whilst retaining thrilling races, enthusiastic fans and full grids will not be easy, but on top of that there’s the added pressure of achieving this at minimal cost to the teams. The UK’s premier race series faces quite a challenge, then.

    In very rough figures, the 2022 BTCC hybrid system will cost around one per cent of what Formula 1 teams spend on their hybrid system per year. Of course, the F1 system comprises more elements, is more complex and completes a lot more mileage, but it does give an idea of how small the money pot is for BTCC to go hybrid. Therefore, series promoter TOCA has had to adopt a completely new and innovative approach to hybridising its championship.

    Road relevance

    But why on earth is BTCC going hybrid anyway? One of the reasons why touring cars are popular is road relevance; the cars out on track are beefed up versions of those in the car parks. So, the argument goes, if you are arriving in a hybrid, then why not watch hybrids race?

    ‘It’s the way the automotive market is going and the BTCC has always been built on the philosophy that what you drive on the road is what we race on the track,’ explains Alan Gow, series director at BTCC. ‘All other major motorsports are going that way, it’s what you have to do to keep relevant to the automotive sector and the fans. But I wouldn’t have done it if it was going to hurt the racing. In fact, we’ve integrated the hybrid system in a way that will actually add an extra element to the racing.

    ‘We see hybrid not so much as an environmental aspect of our championship, but as additional performance,’ Gow adds. ‘We are not a technological formula, this hybridisation is about improving the show, whilst also keeping us relevant in the

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