Our man at the BTCC pinnacle enjoyed his first BTCC hybrid outing
The busy month of March. So busy in fact that this column is a week late. Now I am sure I could have squeezed in a few words to make the deadline, but I also wanted to bring you some updates on our British Touring Car Championship testing programme so I held off. Most notably, I wanted to let you know about the addition of the new hybrid system that all teams and drivers will run for the first time this coming season.
Last week’s deadline fell just before my first taste of electrification, so it made sense to push back a week and let you know how I got on. Rolling out of the pitlane at Snetterton last week in my newly electrified Focus certainly felt like a big moment. Motorbase had been burning the midnight oil to get the car ready for testing and you could feel that this was no ordinary morning shakedown.
This was day one of a whole new era and a big step into the unknown for everyone. There is no more ballast sat alongside the driver (where the passenger would be) and it is replaced by a surprisingly large carbon battery box with two lights on top. Green means you’re good to go; red not so much. From now on, the BTCC’s handicap system will be based on how many laps of electric power you get per race and not on success ballast. Learning when and where to use that power is all part of the new challenge, as is dealing with the increased base weight of the cars. It now feels very similar to a 2021-specification car with the maximum 75kg of ballast.
After a quick install lap, I was back to the pits to check everything is as it should be. With the laptop plugged in, our engine partner Mountune set about fine-tuning the motor to the day’s conditions while Tom, our data engineer, went to work on the new dash display. That, along with the rest of the hybrid system, is supplied by Cosworth Electronics. Tom has done a lot of work these past few weeks fine-tuning the display to show not only the right information but also the relevant information at the right time.
This is something that will continue to evolve as we learn more about the system.
Once that was sorted, it was time for the moment of truth. I headed back on track to scrub new tyres in preparation for faster laps later in the day while being given the green light to press the hybrid button when available. I say ‘available’, as certain parameters must be met to deploy: you have to be in third gear, be at a minimum of 120kph and at more than 45% of the throttle position. Once those conditions are met, the message ‘Hybrid Available’ appears on the dash and you can press the button for up 15 seconds per lap.
The system resets at the start-finish line.
I was a little concerned before the test that the system would be unreliable or more like a placebo where you press the button and can’t really feel anything. But I needn’t have worried. From start to finish the hybrid system was faultless, working exactly as intended right out of the box.
It is a testament to Cosworth, the development teams and Motorbase that has spent many hours ensuring the system is installed to the highest standards. You can also certainly feel its effects. Will you feel it if you’re flat on the throttle through every gear to the red line in normal conditions? Probably not. But you will pull each gear earlier and run into the limiter sooner than you would without it.
The best way I found to feel its effects was to select a higher gear and floor the throttle from lower revs. Press the button under these conditions and you can feel the car pick up like it is suddenly being blown by a strong wind. Certainly, it has enough go to pull out and get alongside if not pass a competitor who was not deploying hybrid power.
Will it make the racing more exciting?
I don’t think so, but BTCC is not lacking in that department. I think it will do a fine job in replacing the old ballast system with a more modern approach, while still mixing up the order and creating overtaking opportunities for drivers with more power.
In a nutshell it gets a thumbs up from me and I am looking forward to learning more about it. I only pressed the button a few times during the day – mainly on cool-down laps just to check its functionality and that it was still active should I need it. I was the only Motorbase car with the system, so we didn’t want to skew our data with the added hybrid element. Working on car set-up was the goal for much of the day once the system had been proved.
By the time you read this we will have had a BTCC exclusive test at Donington so
I am hoping to get a better understanding of how it works over a qualifying lap and in a race scenario. It will also give us a good chance to see how the competition are getting on. Hopefully they are a few steps behind us as I believe we were the first team on track outside of the development programme to run with hybrid. Until next time, cheers.
“You can certainly feel the extra pick-up from the car with the hybrid power”