01/11/2024 11:36
News that the Team BRISTOL STREET MOTORS name was to into Team VERTU had been the first big headline of the off-season, with the EXCELR8-run squad also confirming that both Tom Ingram and Tom Chilton would remain at the wheel of two of the four Hyundai i30 Fastback N cars.
The announcement was quickly followed by news of the change of fuel for the BTCC, which makes it the first major UK championship to adopt fully sustainable, fossil-free fuels for all its cars.
It means the BTCC will adopt fully sustainable fuels five years ahead of a proposed date set out by Motorsport UK – the governing body of the sport in the UK – when all specialist racing fuels should be fossil-free.
“The introduction of 100% fossil free sustainable fuel for 2025 shows that the BTCC remains committed to innovation in motorsport,” BTCC chief executive Alan Gow said.
“As the highest profile championship in the UK, this introduction is a significant and essential step in maintaining the competitiveness and excitement synonymous with the BTCC, but in a more sustainable and forward-thinking way.”
The move to run fully-sustainable fuels means that the BTCC will discontinue the use of hybrid power after three seasons, seasons which proved to be hugely successful for Team VERTU in its previous guise.
At Donington Park in 2022, Ingram became the first driver in series history to win a race with hybrid power in play, and would go on to secure the championship title later in the season.
Having finished as runner-up in both 2023 and 2024, Ingram will now go down in the record books as the driver to have scored the most points in the hybrid era – outscoring Ash Sutton by 14 points.
The move to a new fuel will allow the series to become more sustainable, but it is the removal of the hybrid system which is will have a direct influence on what happens on track.
What Will Change?
Hybrid was introduced as a replacement for success ballast, with drivers allocated a certain amount of hybrid power for each race depending on their championship position or the result of the previous race.
Drivers will still benefit from an additional boost of power in 2025, but that additional power will now come from the turbo fitted to each car – which will run around 55kg lighter because of the removal of the hybrid system.
That makes pre-season testing more important than ever as teams work to revise the set-up of their cars to factor in the change of weight, with Team VERTU’s ace engineering team headed by Spencer Aldridge already fully focused on ensuring that the Hyundai is right on the pace when the new season kicks off.
Whilst the finer details have yet to be confirmed, in theory, fans should expect turbo boost to have a similar impact to hybrid power in terms of the race action, with Team VERTU looking to maintain the kind of form that saw it firmly establish itself as one of the top teams of the hybrid era.
What Is The New Fuel?
The new fuel to be used by Team VERTU has been developed by Haltermann Carless, an industry leader in the development of sustainable fuel solutions and a company that has been handed three star environment accreditation by the FIA; the highest level of the sustainability programme put in place by motorsport’s governing body.
Hiperflo ECO102 R100 was tested during the final two events of the 2024 season and also in a two-day test at Brands Hatch once racing had finished, and is 100% fossil free – developed from biological or synthetic sources and with no use of crude oil.
A ‘Well-to-wheel’ greenhouse gas reduction of 55% compared to traditional fossil fuels is the highest reduction possible in class.