The 2020 British Touring Car Championship puzzle is slowly coming together, after a flurry of announcements at the Autosport International show in Birmingham at the weekend.
No less than seven drivers were announced over the course of the weekend, with some big names catching the attention.
The big news of the weekend was Tom Chilton making the switch from Motorbase to BTC Racing for 2020. The veteran replaces Chris Smiley in the team and joins Josh Cook, forming a formidable partnership in the FK8 Honda Civics. BTC are also taking on a third Civic for this season, and racing in it will be new fans favourite Michael Crees, creating a strong team.
Excelr8 Motorsport announced their first driver for 2020 with Senna Proctor joining the team from BMR Racing. Proctor will be behind the wheel of the brand new Hyundai i30 with three years of BTCC experience behind him. His team mate is yet to be announced.
Elsewhere Ciceley Motorsport have decided to retain their lineup of Adam Morgan and Daniel Rowbottom, with both having had strong 2019 seasons, but knowing there is more to come from the Mercedes A Class.
Trade Price Racing announced former British GT champion James Gornall will be joining the team racing the Audi S3 Saloon, joining Bobby Thompson. While Sam Osborne was announced as the team mate for Jake Hill in the AMD team Honda Civic FK2’s.
David Coulthard has said that he would like to see more, regional W feeder Series in the future ahead of the launch of W Series season two later this year.
Coulthard, 48, has played an active role in the series since it was announced back in 2018 and believes it is important that the championship that acts as a feeder series to Germany’s DTM builds on a successful first season.
“I personally would like to see a North American Championship, an Asian Championship, a number of championships which could then come together for one world championship over a number of races.
“We have tapped into the available talent that recognised W Series in its first year and grown from that, but actually having a feeder championship, that would be good as longer term view. Right now, we’ve got to focus on this championship and grow the reach we have and continue the journey. The year one foundations we currently have in place, we’re very happy with.”
During the first year there was a gap between those who had more single seater experience such as Jamie Chadwick and Alice and those without much single seater experience such as Esmee Hawkey and Caitlin Wood.
“We can do the selection process, which was done fantastically and Alex Wurz is an FIA affiliated selection processor and we felt that we gave everyone as fair an opportunity as possible to really show themselves before getting behind the single seater wheel, of course those that have been doing the single seaters will have an advantage.
“It is a little bit like my journey, when I started at 17 in cars I had no experience of cars and I was going up against people who had three or four years experience but we can’t drive the cars for them, we can’t control what they do away from the championship.”
The 13-time Grand Prix winner is of the belief that those who are quick enough will gravitate towards the front of the grid while suggesting some drivers may decide to test other single seaters.
“This is a free to enter championship, any funding they build up they can put into their programme or test in other cars. Some may choose to invest that in other forms of racing in conjunction with W Series. It is up to them to make that decision, but they have got to make that decision and if you believe in cream rising to the top through hard work, endeavour and all the rest of it then in the same way that Max Verstappen ended up in Formula One at the age of 17.
“That was not by accident it was because of a whole series of testing and planning and having everything set up for it. You’re never going to have it completely fair in terms of the experience they have and how many miles they have done because there is that age discrepancy.”
Sunoco Whelen Challenge and Aston Martin Autosport award winner Johnathan Hoggard says he has interest from a variety of series for 2020.
Hoggard, who was also runner up for Fortec Motorsport in BRDC British F3, suggested he wasn’t far from confirming his plans for 2020.
“Nothing has been confirmed just yet but we are in talks with a variety of teams and we have different options including single seater, but off the back of the Autosport Award there has been a few GT offers. It’s down to me to decide what to do and what is best for my future.
“I enjoyed both at the Autosport challenge, so anything is good for me.”
While he is used to short sprints in the British F3 series and previous junior formulae, Hoggard has suggested that there are more similarities between the LMP2 car that he will drive in January at the Daytona 24 Hours and single seater formulae.
“The Sunoco Whelen Challenge includes a fully funded Rolex 24 Hour drive in the LMP2 category at Daytona. I’m really looking forward to the race and experience. The British F3 and the LMP2 are quite similar in that they both have a lot of downforce but the LMP2 car obviously has a lot more power. Obviously having a roof over your head and there is a lot more adjustability with things like traction control and power steering so you work more with the car than against it.”
And there are few more obvious challenges to overcome driving in a 24 Hour race, and Hoggard has admitted that long runs have been in short supply in testing.
It is mainly getting used to finding the different reference points and getting used to the lack of visibility that comes with night time driving. Daytona is very well lit so that shouldn’t be as much of a problem. We have had a few issues which have limited running to 7 laps at the Raw event, but they should hopefully be out of the way now.”
Let’s talk about this year then. It’s your third different team in three years.
Photo credit, Anna Rudd and M-Sport
Esapekka Lappi
It’s also Seb’s as well. Everyone keeps asking me, but also him as well. He’s gone in the opposite direction.
Warren
I wanted to talk about your preparations, but before that what about last year? You had a lot of issues at Citroen, and you didn’t score as many points as the previous year. You went from one of the best cars, to the not so good car. Could you put into words what the issues were?
Esapekka
I’d say the biggest problem, the first half of the 2019 year was hard, I just couldn’t change my driving style as much as the car needed, and we couldn’t introduce the parts which would suit my driving style and we didn’t have the kind of parts like the differential and then in Monte we had an wishbone issue after hitting a rock and then we had an engine explode. Sweden was fine with the podium and then since then it was very challenging and it felt with the natural driving of mine we were not competitive, I was not fast enough and then I knew to push harder and made mistakes, but then we got new differentials and then the pace on gravel was there immediately. Finland and Turkey were good. In Wales it was kind of going to be fine and we were not far away but then I made a mistake and went wide on a corner and broke a wishbone. Also, in Spain we were not far away and then the engine blew again, so in the end I felt positive steps throughout the year but for some reason on tarmac it was just sh*t. I don’t know why, but it was not only me, Seb also was struggling a lot and we never found out why. That’s mainly coming from the car, that I couldn’t drive it fast enough, and then when I got the parts, then it was better.
Warren
Yeah, you took two stage wins in Finland, so things came together a bit better for you there. Okay, that’s the past. Let’s look at this new year. It’s great to have a driver of your calibre still here. When did the conversation with M-Sport begin, and when did you find out about Citroen? Did you know before the press release?
Esapekka
Two hours before, I got a phone call and I didn’t have long to prepare for that, and then on the same day, we contacted Malcolm as I know it’s the only chance, because Toyota hadn’t released anyone yet, but still I knew who would be driving over there, so then we set all the meetings soon, and after a few days I was meeting Malcolm in England already in November. Things went forward quite quickly and we settled the things very soon, it was just today the guys wanted to announce it. Things were very clear. The funny thing is the rumours, they were flying about already before I even called Malcolm. This was the funniest! But in the end luckily it did happen.
Warren
Looking at the new season, you’ve had some time in the car, can you describe and compare to you two previous cars what it’s like?
Esapekka
Well, the first impression is that it’s quite easy and very logical, at least on tarmac it’s quite logical even if the conditions are tricky and challenging with a lot of surface changes, wet conditions it feels logical, so that’s giving a good confidence for the driver and for sure compared to last year it felt so much easier. I really enjoyed the test the chassis is working even better than the Toyota I believe. Performance wise, Citroen, the engine was kind of only in the top power, no torque but this is opposite again, the torque is quite nice like the Toyota, but when you’re in fifth or sixth gear, in the high revs it’s not really going like the Citroen. We are gaining more in the low revs but missing out of the high revs, but I think we will have a new engine before Argentina, which will fix these problems, and they are saying it will be a big improvement. This is promising, so I’m really quite looking forward that we can surprise people.
Photo credit, Anna Rudd and M-Sport
Warren
Okay, there’s three new events of course, in terms of preparations for those events, particularly the Safari, the roads are going to be quite different.
Esapekka
This is quite tricky to find a place which is similar, I’ve seen some videos from last years rally and looks like they are just making a road with a tractor, where to find these kind of conditions maybe Poland, but’s its maybe too fast, Kenya looks quite sandy, I don’t know what we should do with that. But for the New Zealand I go with the Finland set up, I’ve done this rally once, seven years ago in the Skoda S2000, when I did the Asian Pacific Championship, so I drove over there. Japan, we did the recce last year and it looks super slow and technical, even more corners than Corsica, it can be interesting, but to prepare for Kenya, I have no idea and I’m a bit afraid of this rally, it can be quite an adventure!
Thanks to Esapekka for his time.
2020 FIA World Rally Championship Ford Fiesta WRC 2020 Livery January 2020 Photo: Drew Gibson
James Gornall has rounded off Trade Price Cars Racing’s BTCC line up for 2020, and has confessed to a somewhat unusual way of spending New Years’.
“The first thing I did before I went to sleep at New Year was watch the pole position laps at every single circuit in 2019.”
Gornall joins after winning the Mini Challenge UK series in 2019, and confesses he will be taking as much advice as he can ahead of making the step up.
“I’ll ask Bobby as many questions as I can think of and take any advice he can give me, same as any other friends that race in this series. There’s always a lot that you can learn. When I go back to my British GT days I used to watch onboards of all the cars I was racing against to see what their characteristics were like so I could see where to best lunge at them or find an advantage. I’m going to do the same stuff here.”
While he has been racing in other series, notably in the British GT series, the British Touring Car Championship has been an itch that Gornall has long wanted to scratch.
“We’ve been talking about Touring Cars for a few years now as I feel it has always been my destination. We came back into saloons and did the Minis last year to learn front wheel drive ahead of a move into the Touring Cars.
“I spoke with Dan (Kirby, team owner) a year ago about this when he launched the team and I am happy that we made it happen as I did say to him then that I would win the Minis and the come and race for him.”
While he wanted to use the Mini Challenge to help prepare for a full British Touring Car programme, Gornall acknowledges that the schedule will be totally different even if he is now more used to his machinery.
“I’d say Minis are completely different. I did it to learn the car characteristics or a similar car characteristics but the Touring Car weekend is certainly light years ahead and in on-make championships like the Minis you do get a bit of rough and tumble, no-one really is planning to have rough and tumble but it’s nice see how that is in that environment. It’s been good preparation, this is something completely new and I will be going for it.”
Teemu Suninen starts his second full season with M-Sport Ford. Photo credit, M-Sport
Warren Nel
Let’s talk about your stats from last season. It was really interesting to note that you took more stage wins last year than Esapekka last year. Anyway, give us an idea of your hopes for this new season.
Teemu Suninen
It would be the same before the new season, because we are having new rallies that we haven’t seen so I don’t have any expectations for the new rallies, as we have seen the pace can change quite a lot between rallies, which we saw last year like Sweden, and Germany I was able to set top three times all the time, Citroen were struggling in Germany, yet the rally after they improved and took the top two spots and then Toyota took the top three positions in Germany, and then in Turkey they were nowhere, so it’s difficult to say what the expectations are for the new events.
Warren
What are your hopes though?
Teemu
My hopes are to have more podiums and it would be great to finish the season in the top five or six and try to be close with the second group of drivers.
M-Sport Ford’s new livery. Photo credit Warren Nel
Warren
Are you hoping to be closer to the top three drivers?
Teemu
Yes, basically to be more consistent, everyone can challenge them on some rallies but not in all rallies.
Warren
There’s three new rounds, Safari, New Zealand and Japan finishing the season. In terms of those events you can’t test outside Europe, so how are you going to prepare for those events?
Teemu
That’s a good question, because it’s not easy to find the same kind of roads, they are quite different to the roads in Africa, so I think we need to be quite open minded about with the roads and testing places for Kenya, yeah and we doing the recce in Japan and we saw what kind of roads there is and everyone is wondering where can we find these kinds of roads, because it’s so different. They are in a deep forest, there is no sunshine in the daytime, as they’re so deep in the forest, and a lot of leaves on the tarmac, so it’s never clean and it is also quite slow. It going to be quite challenging with the daylight lights and not losing too much power from the alternator.
Warren
You scored one podium last year. Are there any events that you’re looking to get a podium this year apart from Italy? Score a few more and perhaps your first win?
Teemu
Proper rallies like Portugal and Sardinia, also Turkey. In those rallies I try to get a good pace and set good times.
Current British GT champion Jonny Adam admits that he isn’t sure where he’ll be racing in 2020.
The Aston Martin works driver has won the British GT championship the last two years with Flick Haigh and Graham Davidson and is eager to return to the series in which he has won the most races with 14.
“We’ve sold a lot of cars and we’ll wait and see where I am next year as we haven’t yet been assigned a programme for 2020. We won the championship in a car that was very new to everyone in March, second year round we know where to make the car nicer but it is a BOP championship so you can’t have the fastest car out there. That makes it easier to driver and makes it better all round. I’d love to be doing British GT next year.”
The flying Scotsman spoke about his coaching of Am drivers, a tool useful in a championship where professional racing drivers are usually paired with so called “gentleman drivers”.
“When I play golf I always go to the driving range before the first tee. The reason I do this is because of muscle memory, and it is the same when you’re racing these cars. You can’t test much because they cost an awful lot of money to run. The cheapest and easiest way to test the car and improve as a driver is by using the simulator. The sim model we have at base for me as an Aston employee is perfect because it’s got the same brakes, the same tub and it’s within a couple of tenths of what we do at the weekend.”
While there were some differences between Haigh and a hard-charging Davidson, Adam went back to basics with both drivers when he started to work with them.
“You change quite a lot (From Flick to Graham). Every customer driver wants to win, I have always been lucky in that the level of Am that I have had is always at a nice level and always have the aspiration to win the championship.
“I actually put both of them in a go kart in January and February because it is a great training tool anyway but also, these guys won’t have driven anything with an engine for three or four months in anger so it flushes out the cobwebs.
“It is all about the personality though and what information they will take onboard from coaching, and I don’t know that until I meet the person. My method always changes, even depending on the race weekend and the weekend before to make sure I get their confidence up. My coaching technique has not changed and I’ve been coaching now for five or six years, though I have been an instructor since 2003.
“For sure Graham is one of the fastest Ams out there and it is plain to see from the lap times, but the key with GT racing is being consistent. If you finish fourth in every race in the British GT Championship you’re in with a chance of winning the title so the days where you are looking at an awkward manoeuvre are the days where you sit and take the points. Sometimes it is about communication, I always like to speak to the driver as well and give them information, not too much but enough detail at the right time.”
F1’s rulemakers are planning to use drivers from its eSports series to trial any major changes to the sporting regulations, to ensure they work as planned before being introduced.
Speaking at Autosport International, F1 technical consultant Pat Symonds said the idea is part of plans to make sure new rules in the future don’t have unintended negative consequences on the sport, by putting them through the same evidence-based simulations as his technical team used to refine 2021’s new aerodynamic regulations.
“We’re working a lot with simulation. We’ve produced what I think is a world-first in an overtaking simulation, but we found a problem with it in that [the AI driver] is too good.
“So what we want to do now is use the physics of those simulations but put real drivers in a virtual environment, racing against each other, so we can see whether these changes to the sporting regulations are good. What I’m hoping…is that we’ll use some of our elite gaming racers from our eSports series to test out some of our ideas.”
Ferrari Media
One of the ideas Symonds said F1 were keen to test out in simulation was alternative grid formations, while sprint races to determine grid position could also be trialled in this way despite teams rejecting early proposals for this last year.
Symonds also said that F1 is using technology to analyse viewers’ responses to races, to better understand which areas of the sporting regulations actually need addressing:
“We have people wired up while they’re watching races and we look at their galvanic skin response, we look at their emotions. By looking at all these various research areas, we can really start to build a picture of what makes good racing.”
Gus Greensmith at last season’s Rally de Portugal. Photo credit, M-Sport Ford
Warren Nel
Well, Gus last time I spoke to you was twelve months ago when you were looking forward to Portugal. How do you feel that event went for you?
Gus Greensmith.
It was a learning event. Clearly, it’s gone pretty well, because now I’m here in a WRC car, but it was great. It was great to beat Seb Ogier and Seb Loeb, the first stage I’d done in a world car, so that was an eye-opener for some, and then it went from there. The pace was pretty good, obviously you’ve got the three guys at the front, Seb, Thierry and Ott are steps ahead at the moment, but then if you look at those I was fighting with, Teemu, Elfyn, Esapekka we were separated by tenths, so it went well.
Then there was the call up for Finland, which was less than a week away from the rally, not prepared and again we were doing good times there, and Germany as well. Yes, it was a pretty narrow window to get prepared for a world rally car, it all went well, now we’re here. Pretty much straight after Finland that I got the offer for this year, so I’d known about it for a very long time.
Since then there’s been a big weight loss, 21 kilos just to get the weight to be perfect, so it been very busy behind the scenes since then and worth every second.
Warren Nel
Looking ahead to the season ahead, just take me through which events you’ll be taking part in.
Gus Greensmith
Monaco, Mexico, Argentina, Portugal, Sardinia, Finland, Turkey, Germany and depending on results maybe we can see one or two more, but results will have to be strong for that, so we’ll have to see. I have my rounds that I kind of picked, where I want to push, where I want to show my worth, aside from that it’s all about be flat out on every rally, that’s the benefit of only having nine, the fact that we don’t have to be prepping for every event, I’ve got a little bit longer to prepare myself for some of the rallies, which for me is extremely important. At the end of the day, you’d always prefer the full calendar, it’s also a good thing to have that extra time week or two to prepare will make a difference, and I proved that in Portugal, I proved that in every rally I’ve done, for me the nine rallies seems quite a bit perfect, and if we can get one or two more with some good results then all the better.
Warren Nel
If we go back to Portugal, you picked that event, but you hadn’t intended doing the other events, take us to that moment when you found out you were doing more events.
Gus Greensmith
I was always going to be doing more events, we just didn’t know which and it just coincided that they needed a driver. I literally landed from holiday, I was jet lagged and it was about eight pm and I got a phone call from Rich and he said, you don’t share this to anyone, but you’ll be driving the world rally car in Finland, so I was like what the f***, er right fine, no problem, I’m up for any challenge, and yeah, it was grand!
Warren Nel
What did you learn in that weekend, as it’s a pretty spectacular event?
Gus Greensmith
It was, for sure, the toughest rally of my career, for many reasons. One, not the prep I wanted to put in, two, it’s such an abstract rally compared to the calendar- You have to be flat out, fully committed and be confident with the car and unless you are then things just don’t click, so to be fighting with Teemu and beating him on the first day was incredible, alright but the pace as a package for the Ford team wasn’t good enough, we were cleaning the roads, so from that point in it was really tricky to find the speed, but comparatively against the team, those behind, our times were quite strong.
Warren Nel
This season you’ve got nine rounds, which event are you most looking forward to?
Gus Greensmith
Portugal I’m doing again, that’s the one that I’m going to go for it, see how far we can get up the leaderboard, I think we can be really strong there. Obviously, we won in Monaco last year, pretty dominant, I’d like to do the same this year, but to put a strong performance this year, then you’ve got to look at Turkey, it’s a rally that I suit well, got to do well there. The thing is I’ve got to deliver on every rally, if I want to earn my place in this sport full time, which is my ambition.
Warren Nel
In terms of scoring points for the team, have you got a set amount to be scoring?
Gus Greensmith
No, for me I’ve got the good job, I’ve got the third car, so they can just send me off as a loose cannon, and I just go and drive and try not to crash. Still, at some point in the year I’ll have to play the team game and score some points, but for now that’s Teemu and Esapekka’s job. For me, it’s about getting the best results in each individual rally.
Warren Nel
In terms of your preparations and testing, has it been good?
Gus Greensmith
Yeah, I got back from two days testing in Monaco, it was really good, went really well, really positive by the end of the day, I think all the footage looked really sideways, but for me, Monaco it’s quite important to be confident with the car, rather than finding the ultimate setup and time, you’ve just got to be confident in changing conditions, so that day was about throwing it in, I did it last year, so I don’t see why it shouldn’t work again.
Warren Nel
I said that fans had been watching the testing videos which had been posted online and were saying how the car looks quite lairy and sideways.
Gus Greensmith
Yeah, people love it and it’s not the fastest way, but unfortunately when you’re driving in Monaco you’ve just got to be prepared to throw it into a corner that’s going to have no grip in it what-so-ever, so we have to send it in, and I want to be the fastest person transitioning from tarmac to the ice, and that’s why in the test you saw me throwing the car around from corner to corner, I want to when I get here I know exactly what’s it going to be like before anyone else.
Warren Nel
Who are your safety crew for the tarmac rounds?
Gus Greensmith
I’ll have a Canadian called Anthoine L’Estage an eight time Canadian champion, an incredible understanding of how snow changes and develops and hugely important for my success on tarmac rallies, and then on the passenger side I’ll have Steve Lancaster, a very experienced co-driver working with him, and it’s worked really well before, so I see no reason to change something that isn’t broken.
2020 FIA World Rally Championship Ford Fiesta WRC 2020 Livery January 2020 Photo: Drew Gibson
F1 technical consultant Pat Symonds has said that he has remembered the mistakes he made in designing the 2009 regulations to ensure the new 2021 rules work as planned.
Symonds was part of the Overtaking Working Group set up by F1 to design the 2009 regulations overhaul, while at the same time being in charge of engineering for the Renault F1 team.
As well as Symonds, the OWG also included input from Rory Byrne and Paddy Lowe, who were still part of Ferrari and McLaren at the time.
Speaking at Autosport International on Thursday, Symonds said he has learnt from the mistakes the 2009 OWG made and has used his experience to avoid a repeat with the 2021 regulations:
“2009’s very interesting because…myself, Rory Byrne, Paddy Lowe and the late Charlie Whiting, we formed an Overtaking Working Group and looked at producing the regulations for 2009. But at the same time, I was trying to win races and win championships. And it’s quite interesting because we did leave loopholes in there.
“The great thing is, you do learn from your mistakes. I think it’s absolutely fundamental we had [an] independent group, because if you work in a team you’re paid to win races, you’re paid to exploit performance, you’re paid to find those loopholes in the rules. It’s really unfair to expect the teams to look above that and look at what’s good for the sport.”
Symonds added that the aerodynamic group behind the 2021 regulations is currently working to close off any loopholes with the 2021 regulations by trying to add downforce to a car in the same way a working F1 team would, and analysing what developments have a negative effect on the wake of the car.
