Hybrid horizons: Q+A with BTCC chief executive Alan Gow
British Touring Car Championship Chief Executive Alan Gow (photo credit: BTCC)
The British Touring Car Championship has been delighting motorsport fans for over 60 years, and since the early 1990s has established itself as one of the world’s most spectacular racing series featuring iconic cars and legendary drivers.
Central to the growth and sustained success of the BTCC is the series’ chief executive Alan Gow. In 1990 the Australian ex-racer formed TOCA Limited and purchased the rights to the BTCC in 1991. Since then Gow has been both a guiding hand and a visionary figure in the series as it has navigated the big money Super Touring era of the 1990s to the cost-cutting BTC Touring and Super 2000 years en route to the current NGTC regulations.
These days the entire 10-meeting, 30-race season is covered live on ITV4 and crowds are chomping at the bit to return to the circuits of the UK to witness the spectacle in the flesh in what will undoubtedly be another year of memorable wheel-to-wheel action with different winners every weekend and panel bashing rivalries.
Aside from the on-track competition there’s a lot to look forward to post-2021. One of the major changes on the horizon is the introduction of hybrid systems to the cars, a major nod to the wider automotive seismic shift towards electric powered vehicles, and in 2022 the BTCC will be introducing an integral element of hybrid power to the cars for the first time.
The BTCC’s hybrid hardware will be a homologous piece of kit made by Cosworth and as well as providing an increase in power, the hybrid system will replace the current ‘success ballast’ ruling where cars are laden with varying weight additions corresponding to success, thus levelling the playing field. Drivers will have 15 seconds of hybrid boost available per lap which will be generated and they will have control over the amount of their hybrid energy they use during the race.
With all this and more going on in the world of BTCC, electrica.live caught up with Alan Gow to talk hybrids and hopes for the 2021 season and beyond.
electrica.live: The implementation of hybrid hardware into BTCC cars in 2022 is a major change. What are your thoughts on that and the wider electrification of motorsport?
Alan Gow: Obviously we needed to move towards hybrid, or move to hybrid because you need to remain relevant to the world around you, and the acceleration of the world around us towards hybrid and electrification, whether it be partial or full electrification is happening, much more rapidly than we ever thought.
You know, if you said to me 10 years ago that we'd be introducing hybrid within the decade. I would've laughed at you, but, that's the world we live in and the BTCC has to be relevant to that. It's not only because that's the way people are buying cars, it's also what sponsors are starting to expect. You know, you can't just stay out of step with what is happening around you, and if I go right back to the early 1990s, that's why we introduced the two litre formula, because that was the motor that car buying public we're going for.
It's all about relevance to the public, the manufacturers and the sponsors, so that's why we looked at going hybrid and we had to do something that was very cost-effective for the teams, because this is only a national championship – this is not an international or a world championship, so it had to be cost effective.
Clearly going fully electric at this stage is just well beyond the means of our teams, so hybrid is seen as a stepping stone for the next five years. That takes us to the end of 2026, by which time I have no doubt that full electrification will be much more affordable for the teams and provide great performance. I have no doubt that in that time, technology will have mastered to the point where probably the BTCC can then adopt electrification if that's relevant at that time.
The BTCC has gone through significant changes in the 30-plus years you have been involved. What do you think the fans’ expectations are for the BTCC in 2021?
AG: It is all about engaging with fans. In the early days in the early 1990s we often had one race a day, sometimes two, and obviously the fans will have racing all day and you'd have a BTCC race every hour if they had their way! The involvement of TV was largely responsible for driving the format towards two or more races in a day.
You know, if they were going to do live coverage all day, they wanted to do more than a 25 minute rice or a headline 25 minute race, So, so that largely drove the format to what it is today with three races on a Sunday, but more generally I think people's expectations of what sport needs to deliver them is, something more than what it was 30 years ago.
Do BTCC fans and spectators attach themselves to any particular brands they see on track and on TV and how does that commercial appeal translate?
AG: I mean, the days people staying loyal to a manufacturer because they raced in their favourite championship, whether it be Formula One or the BTCC or whatever, and the "race on Sunday sell on Monday", mantra, I think those days are largely gone. People are a bit less emotional about their decision, particularly when the majority of cars now are bought on lease rather than, rather than bought out right.
The main thing about introducing hybrid is as a performance additive is so the drivers can have added performance into their cars and they can attack and defend adding a greater element of strategy into it. The most important thing is we are introducing our bid forwards for performance attributes, and by doing that it will play into the emotional argument. If you like we are saying, actually hybrid and going towards electric is not totally driven by a green push. It's also an exciting performance addition to the series. You'll still hear the engines as you do now, you'll still have the same sensation that you have now. You won't have silent cars racing around the track!
You’ve seen a lot of changes during your time in motorsport – is this an exciting time for you?
AG: It's really exciting, and most people are excited – slightly nervous, you know, we're going into a totally different direction and different areas than we've ever been before. All the things that we've done since the early 1990s have been based on a two litre formula and the only thing we've ever changed was introducing turbos later, and that was a big change for us. The hybrid plans are an even bigger change because you're dealing in areas that most of the teams would have no idea. Most of the teams have never had any and any experiences regarding electrification, hybrid, whether it be on the road or the racetrack.
So there's a lot of nervousness there, but, but there's a lot of excitement. So I'm looking forward to it. I've got to tell you at the first race next year, I'll have everything crossed, you know, because all the work we've been doing out the last two years, all the reliability, all the running, everything that we've done, you just hope it's going to work on track. So I'll have my fingers crossed, but other than that, it's an exciting time to be involved in the BTCC.