The Mercedes-Benz A-Class is a small, fancy car made by a well-known brand. It's popular because it looks good and has a lot of cool features inside. People are talking about it possibly being used in racing, which shows how versatile it can be.
RML is a company from the UK that works in motorsports and car engineering. They help teams build and improve race cars, making them faster and more competitive.
The Toyota Corolla is a small car that is very popular because it's reliable and saves gas. Many people around the world drive it, and it’s also used in racing.
Endurance racing is a type of car racing where drivers race for a long time, sometimes for hours. It’s about how well the car can last and how well the drivers can handle the long race.
GT racing is a type of car racing that uses sports cars designed for both speed and comfort. These races often last longer and involve more strategy than regular races.
The Carrera scholarship scheme is a program by Porsche that helps young drivers get better at racing. It offers training and chances to race in competitions.
BMW M Sport models are special versions of regular BMW cars that are made to be faster and more fun to drive. They have better engines and sportier designs.
The Opel Astra is a small car that many people in Europe drive. It's known for being comfortable and good on gas, making it a practical choice for everyday use. It's being talked about in racing, which shows it can be modified to perform better on the track.
The Vauxhall Astra is a small car that many people in Europe like to drive. It's comfortable and has good fuel economy, making it a smart choice for everyday use.
The Ford Focus is a small car that many people enjoy driving because it handles well and has modern features. It's a good option for those who want something fun and practical.
Park Fermi is a rule in racing that keeps cars in the same condition after qualifying or a race. It stops teams from making big changes to their cars, so everyone competes fairly.
A qualifying race is a short race that helps decide where drivers will start in the main race. The faster you go, the better your starting position will be.
A dry slick tire is a smooth tire used in racing when the track is dry. It helps cars grip the road better and go faster, but it can't be used on wet surfaces.
A wet tire is a type of tire made for driving in the rain. It has special grooves that help it grip the road better when it's wet, preventing the car from sliding.
Pole position is the first spot on the starting line for a race. The driver who qualifies fastest gets this spot, which helps them start the race ahead of others.
One lap pace is how fast a driver can go in just one lap. It's important for qualifying because it helps determine where they start in the race, but it might be different from how fast they can go during the whole race.
Formula 1 is a top-level car racing series where teams compete in fast cars on different tracks. It's famous for its exciting races and cutting-edge technology.
A hybrid car uses both a regular gas engine and an electric motor. This helps save fuel and is better for the environment. Many racing cars are starting to use this technology too.
LIVE
We've decided the best way for you to do this podcast is first part on a Tuesday, second
part on a Wednesday, then by Friday, it might all come together. This is the qualifying
analysis.
Hello, and welcome back to the British Touring Car Podcast. We've got a little bit of news
to update you with, but this is mainly going to be looking at the fairly substantial news,
I would say, that's come out regarding the change to qualify for 2026, a decision that
may well be the worst in BTCC modern era.
I think so. So obviously, we did a podcast a couple of weeks ago where the news first
broke, where we looked about what might happen. And I think it's fair to say all the fears
of what we thought might happen in that podcast have now come to pass.
We weren't keen at that point, and it's not got any better.
If anything, it's got worse.
Yes.
So I'm with you. I think this is honestly one of the worst things happened to the touring
cars since the exodus at the end of the 1999 season as we moved into the 2000s and the end
of the supertourers. And that's not normally something I say because I normally get quite
angry and people say, well, we need to go back to the 90s, but yeah, this has been terrible.
But we will do a bit of news first of all, because there has been some actual team news
to 2026 that's come out over the last couple of days, and it's not Jason Plato who seems
to have gone into hibernation mode and maybe we'll hear from him as probably as soon as
we finish this podcast, to be honest with you.
Yeah, he did release an article as part of auto sport. So there's a good look into what
the team is going to look like going forward into 2026.
Some of the personnel that he's managed to pick and choose and snatch from other teams,
particularly Alliance, yes, that could make for an interesting acquisition for him as
a team and possibly will help their development and go forwards. Now, there have been a couple
of pictures released within those articles and suggestions are that the car that they
could be running for the 2026 season may well be a Mercedes A-class.
Quite possibly. We don't know for sure. What we do know for sure is that he is teaming
up once again with RML, who he did the Chevrolets with back in the day, and RML have been in
the sport on and off for a long period of time, and it's certainly a partnership that
has borne fruit before. So I think that's it's great of RML back in the sport. I'm not
quite sure the last time they were in the top of my head, it might well have been the
Chevy. Do they continue after that?
Not because it became BMR after that thing, so it's good to then back in the sport be
interesting to see what they can bring together package wise for Plato and his new team. One
driver that was semi-linked with Plato is definitely not going to be there because we've had that
news announced today. But before we jump head to that, we need to take a step back to explain
the team who we're driving for.
Yeah, there's been a bit of a mix up on the grid going forward into 2026. Now, this season
2025, we've had laser tools running with obviously Jake Hill and the BMW. And we knew coming
up to the end of the season, Jake Hill would be moving on to do more international racing.
So then there were going to be question marks over, would MB motorsport with laser tools carry
on in the BMW for 2026? Would they do a two car lineup? Would they look to move to possibly
another team, another manufacturer or even just another car outright? And we've got an answer.
Yeah, they've moved to a Toyota, which if you look back at the 2025 season seems absolutely
bizarre.
It does. So obviously, they have decided to team up with Speedworks and run two Toyota
Corollas for next season. It looks as if the Toyota will be doing what they did in 24,
which is having two zoo run car or two Toyota run cars and then two satellite cars like we had
with LKQ Cook and Moffat that year. Hopefully that might focus them a little more.
That might focus them a little more for the 2026 season because last year was certainly
possibly their most barren season so far. It also explains why I saw Rand Taylor Smith
coming in and out of BMW trucks at Silverstone, which was quite interesting as well. Some questions
that have been asked by some of the community on this is how long in the works it has been.
Did this influence Jake Hill's decision to leave? Did he not want to go to Toyotas? It does raise
some questions, but is there something bigger going on behind the scenes at BMW? Well, there's
a sponsorship for the WSR part of the team. They had to bring in the LKQ Euro car parts
with Moffat and Rainford last season. Are we seeing a mass exodus from BMW and could they
be at risk of not being a manufacturer team even? I personally think that, and I've said this on
social media, I think they're looking, this is just my view, perhaps be phasing themselves
out of the touring cars and going into endurance and GT racing, particularly given that they've
got two drivers in De Leon and Rainford that have made their interest in that discipline clear,
shall we say? I've been, De Leon tried out for the Porsche, I forget which discipline it was,
but Callan Voicin has won that seat. The Carrera scholarship scheme that they go through. Callan
Voicin has won that and obviously Rainford said in our interview that that's where he's had an
ultimate goal for him. So we'll have to come back to that. What we do know to say at the moment is
that Corolla laser tools and speedworks all joined together and we have one of the two
drivers that have been announced today as well and it is our antennae Smith. Yeah, it's obviously
it's not really any move for him because he'll still be in the Corolla like he was last season
and once they had that M Sport engine brought into that unit, you could kind of see some of that
competitiveness come back. In my mind, I think they're probably going to run that going forward
into the 2026 season because of the success they had at the end of that season. It could be the
oldest car on the grid though, because there are some suggestions that unlimited motorsport
might be changing the Cupra. We know PMR have had to change the Astra and they're going to be
running Audi. So I think that would make the Corolla the oldest car on the grid. Yeah, it obviously
depends on what Plato brings for his team and whether the rumors that are going through the
mill at the moment are that possibly unlimited has been offered the Napa forward focuses.
And then there are further rumors on from that as to what Napa will be running, but
we won't get too deep into that because they're fairly shallow rumors at the moment. Yeah,
it obviously also depends with a one motorsport return to the grid next season, what car they
are running. But yeah, I think it makes sense for Maritana Smith's point of view to stay where
he is obviously can't go back to PMR's Astra because they no longer exist. They had a difficult
season this 2025 season. However, sometimes I've said it before Toyota keeping a little bit of
calm, a little bit of stability helps your team grow, look at virtue, look at Napa.
I think Aaron himself really understands the need to stay within a team for two,
three, four seasons because we saw how he grew into that Astra and he gradually got stronger
and stronger and stronger because you're able to finesse these little details that you need
to get up to the front end of a really competitive grid.
What will be interesting on that is whether he can have a real crack at the title in this car.
So, ladies and gentlemen, have won a Giles Championship with Jake Hill. They're not
a silly outfit by any stretch of the imagination. We know that Corolla towards the end of the
season in particular was fast. Cook and Shetland were getting some real joy out of the car
towards the end of the season. Okay, not so much Taylor Smith, but it's difficult when you've had
a difficult season of a really poor car beneath you, then suddenly it all switches on.
You've got to unlearn a lot of habits that you've learned to drive around the car's problems.
Stop it breaking as well, which he had big issues.
But there is that as well. So, yeah, we'll have to see how that one pans out for 2026.
Yeah, from my understanding, it looks like because they're going to be a satellite team,
they'll be running in possibly an independent outfit, possibly going for that independence
title as well. Right, shall we get on to the, in our opinion, the worst thing to have
for steering cars in a very, very long time? And to be clear, that includes the hybrids here.
No, it's gone again. This involves the ballast. This involves reverse grids. This includes allowing
an Integra tank into the championship. Yeah. First of all, I must thank you for all of your
comments on social media about this news when it was released. We put it out there if you're not
already subscribed, go and subscribe there, because we've had some brilliant discussions
between all our followers and ourselves, particularly his Facebook, which is where it's
gone now. And we do try, and I think I have managed to respond to everybody's comments, but we do,
I promise you, we read them all and we do try and respond to you all as well, unless you're
being silly. And if you haven't already, let us know down in the comments your thoughts about this
and go and read up further on it. There's plenty about it on the Brewster at our website.
It's been overwhelming negative. And actually, it's been overwhelming negative everywhere I've
seen. So I also had a quick look on the official Touring Car page to what the comments were there
as well. And there's a lot of negativity there too. There's been a lot of negativity on Twitter,
X, whatever Elon's calling it these days. So yeah, let's get into it. I'll give you a very
quick overview of what the, because there's a lot here to take in. It's very complicated. It's
needlessly complicated. I sent it to my partner who just replied back, why do they have to make
it so difficult? And yeah, it is difficult. Do we, are we reverting back to that top gear
meme? Yes. Yes. Of the rally cross. One plus one equals three. Yes. Yeah. So I'll give a quick
overview. We'll then discuss it and then I'll try and give some positivity and then I'll explain
why the positive is wrong. Yeah, I'll try and put this up on screen at the same time as well.
Okay. So we'll have 140 minutes free practice session to take place at approximately 10 30.
This is all on a Saturday, by the way. Approximately. Approximately. Maybe that accurate for each
round. Well, I guess it depends on the other colleagues and whatnot. The official qualifying
session is set to take place at approximately two o'clock in the afternoon, split into two
qualifying groups of 15 minutes each. The group that includes the fastest set lap time overall
will set the odd numbers of the grid for the qualifying race. So one, three, five, seven,
et cetera, et cetera. And the other group will take the even numbers. So kind of what we've seen
with free practice to this season and how it would set up the first two qualifying sessions.
But if you set the second, the way I read that is if you set the second fastest lap,
you'll start third because you're taking the odd numbers. I'll read that again.
The group that includes the fastest set lap time overall will set the odd numbers of the
grid for qualifying. And the other group will take the even numbers. If you're second overall,
you'll take third.
No, so it splits the grid as you would at the moment. So the session that has the fastest
time overall will start first. Yeah. The second fastest in that session. Oh, I see. So it splits
it odd and even. I see because you've got the other sessions. Yeah, okay, that makes sense. Yeah,
okay, yeah, gotcha. See, we're not, we're not, we're only into bullet point three and it's already
confusion. Okay. There'll then be a 10 minute gap between the end of the official qualifying
session and pit lane opening for the qualifying race. Plenty of time if you've had an issue.
There is no suggestion at the moment that Park Fermi will be lifted. So I'm assuming that
all the cars will be in Park Fermi condition. Yeah. I mean, they can't make any substantial
change to Aero or anything like that. No, they can basically change some tires and that's pretty
much it. Or like for like, with the tokens steward leaning over and ticking things off on a,
on a spreadsheet, um, qualifying race distance to be approximately 15 minutes in duration set
in advance to the nearest lap count at each particular circuit. Because it's longer than
others. That's about six laps that's less than five really. It's not clear if we're doing warm-up
laps and stuff like that. No option tires permitted to be used in the qualifying race.
Only that event standard dry slick tire and or wet tire may be used throughout the official
qualifying session. Okay. Well, it's fairly standard. Yep. Throughout the official qualifying
session and subsequent race, and I'm going to call it sprint race for clarity because it's,
it's just easier than getting mixed up with Sunday races. Each car will have the permitted
toker turbo boost TTB available as per championship order. So as the season goes on,
the sprint gets even more pointless if you are in a championship position because you're just
going to fall back through the grid. Yes. Half points from a championship round to be awarded
as per the finishing order of the qualifying race rounded up to the nearest whole point
where applicable, I must say, this is the most bizarre part of it for me. Yeah. So first gets
10. So it's roughly half though. It's slightly less than half put them up here. Yeah. First gets 10,
That is where my issue comes in. 10 facts that you can have a difference in position,
but no difference in points makes both positions almost worthless. 10, 3, 11, 3, 12,
2, 13, 2, 14, 1, 15. Once we're still doing 1 to 15. Yes. Yep. No manufacturers, constructors,
teams, independent drivers, independence teams or Jack Sears trophy points will be scored in the
spring. Good. That'll just make it more confusing, which I do agree with. No extra point will be
awarded for the leading qualifying race or fastest lap. No extra point will be awarded for
securing pole position for the sprint. No extra point. Because at the minute, if you took pole,
you get a point. So if you take pole in the sprint, you don't get another point. But if you win the
sprint, you get 10. You effectively take a pole for the sunday, so you get a point for that.
Yes. Sorry. But then you have to take, obviously, your pole. No, I don't think you get a point for
a pole. I think a point for a pole is gone is how I'm reading that. Oh, okay.
It's how I'm reading that. That's how I read it. I could be wrong. Then the final classification
of each qualifying sprint on Saturday will determine the grip positions for Sunday's opening race.
Okay. So this is honestly, I'm lost for words. Didn't F1 try this for the first season and decide,
unequivocally, this is stupid and change it. They changed it. Or they tried it for, I think,
two or three rounds. And then because of the uproar that they had through social media and the
fans and drivers, yeah. And they went back and changed it. I think they also had the rule where
once the timer gets to zero in the session, if you're on a lap, that doesn't count anymore.
They also change quite quick. They also had to park further to change those. You can change
setup from this sprint race to the main race. Yes. I have to say, I still don't like sprint
races in F1 because I think they are gimmicky. But I think how they've got it now is the best it
can possibly work. It doesn't affect the Sunday too much. But it also works more for F1 because
you've only got one main race on the Sunday. There is that as well. And it does take away a little
bit of the, to be honest, there is no strategy in F1 anymore because they're all one-stop races.
But without having a pit stop, you get a bit of hard racing on the circuit without having the
strategy. So it's down to pure pace. I don't like it, but it works the best I think it can.
What I also must say is that we're comparing this to F1 because it's the most sport,
another sport that we both watch, we both enjoy. The sprint weekends, you do get
a slightly more shaken up group because you only have that one practice session. So people can't
dial their cars in absolutely perfectly to nip a pole position by 1000 for a second.
Or monitor skid plate wear or something like that. But I don't think we're going to see that as much
touring cars because, yes, we've seen drivers get the setups wrong, but they can change them
between the races so they can get back onto a setup that they are more preferred to have.
Having just that one session at the start of the weekend, I don't think is going to
shake up the qualifying race, sprint race that much.
No, I completely agree. I also, I look at it and think, why would anybody in a championship battle
make a risk of an overtake in the sprint race? Especially if it doesn't gain you a point.
There is that as well. Some people said, oh, this will make Saturday more interesting,
we want to see more racing. Yeah, I get that. But if you're certain and you're in a championship
battle of Ingram, are you really going to chuck it on the line for fourth when you can just start
fifth? No. The only people who are going to benefit because they've got nothing to lose
and they tend to crash into people. Generally, that's by a rule of thumb, yes.
So you could have your, and I know at the minute, this is the argument that's been
chucked back at me, is that, well, this could happen on the Sunday, fine. But you can be doing
nothing wrong in the sprint race, you can be having a race and then suddenly a wild Osborne appears
across the grass because he's been tapped or something like that.
Makes you sound like Pokemon.
Smash things to the back of your route and now you're now starting from the back of the grid
on Sunday. It doesn't even have to be another driver. It could just be a car failure.
I don't mind that so much because that can happen in qualifying anyway.
It could, but if we're effectively putting the stresses on these vehicles,
putting them through their paces more and more, having more competitive sessions
where they have to run at their full optimum capacity, we're going to see more breakages,
we're going to see more breakdowns, we're going to see possibly even more punches
and bits and pieces like that.
Well, that is that point as well is the cost implication. Now,
I'm not just picking on Dan Lloyd because it's easy, but he is a driver that has been open about
the struggles he has in getting budgets together, crash budgets. You factor in a
certain level of the crash, but you're going to have to raise that because you've now got 10 extra
races and I know something can go wrong in qualifying. You can have a tire blow, the engine
catch fire, but that's just, it's not on you, but that's just bad luck in that way. On this
scenario, you're now saying to the drivers, if there's 10 times more chance, you'll get wiped
out and then it's not your fault on the Saturday. We could see cars written off on the Saturday,
don't get out on the Sunday. Now, again, that can happen in normal qualifying, but it very rarely
does. Yeah, you very rarely see that competitive edge causing collisions during a qualifying
session or big failures during a qualifying session. When you've got door to door racing,
there can be casualties, there can be bits broken off that can't be replaced and fixed and that
could really hamper the rest of your weekend. Now, we're not trying to do down the fact of,
yes, we're going to get more racing. We think that the quality is going to be so poor.
Yeah, and the system that's been put in place, one in the first instance didn't need changing.
No, I really think they got it nailed this year. The first time in a long time, I thought they
really got qualifying now. The three sessions were perfect. It made Saturday exciting.
The qualifying has no issue at all from this season. If you're going to change anything and you want to
listen to the fans, take in their views and be able to respond to them and give them something to
talk about in a positive way, then look at shaking up the races and how they're evolving on the Sunday.
Because my biggest complaint in long time listeners will always know this is that race two,
I hate as a setup. And you're right. Shaking at race one makes no difference to race two.
Can I put something out? I was thinking about this in the shower the other day,
to change up the race weekend on a Sunday only, could we look at possibly a big shakeup for race
one and have a reverse championship order and then have a qualifying from the Saturday set the order
for race two? Yeah, I'll be after that. I think there's so many other ways to do this. I don't
necessarily hate the idea of having a sprint feature race, but then you'd have to go down to
having two races, one sprint and one double distance. Unless you have two longer races
and one short race on Sunday. I don't hate that. What this feels to me is that we haven't managed
to find a proper stop gap for the support races because we haven't got a junior program ready
and we're not going to have it ready to at least 27. Because we can't price people into the right
price bracket to attract the amount of attention we need to then run a championship. We're also
charging so much money to have support packages just beyond the grid for rounds here. And I think
I think somebody did ask somebody in the legends to why they're not on the grid
and their response was that they just want too much money and a championship that is effectively
and I no disrespect because we love the legends is a clubman championship. It's got to balance
the amount that you pay to be on the grid for a weekend for having all that viewership compared
to the amount of people that you then go, I'm going to have a go at that basically or I'm going to
plow their money into being within that championship. So it feels to me as a massive
stop gap for that which I don't like either. There's also some talks of ITV maybe saying the
rights to Sky and this does maybe feel a little bit of all coming F want to find this in the way
that Sky, I think Sky have done a good job of F1 overall but I think if touring cars are behind
a pay wall that would be the death of the sport. I really do. I don't see enough people paying to
have Sky who don't already have it to watch touring cars. I just don't see that happening.
We'll cross that bridge when we get there but I don't see that being a good thing if we go down
that road and then somebody did put a positive comment. So let me just get that up just to
try and balance things out because I know we've been a little bit negative. The thing is the vast
majority of people have been outwardly negative and I do wonder whether that outwardly negative
comments, feedback and stuff like that will actually cause
the touring countries to have a look at it and possibly even change it like we've seen in F1.
With all due respect to yourself and the person running it, I don't think he gives a flying
what people think. I think Liberty Media and F1 care a lot more about what fans think, a lot
more about what stakeholders and Netflix think and they're willing to have those conversations.
The impression I get, I could be completely wrong and it's just an opinion, but the impression
I get is that it's run with what they think is best and they're happy and they'll almost like
the England cricket team. They'll double down on what they're doing as being the right thing
even if there's lots of resistance to it. So somebody who has put a little bit of
positive slight on it is that more people are watching the cars on the Saturday. Well,
yes, assuming it's on normal telly because that's a big failing at the minute is it is not,
it's on YouTube and a lot of people don't know we're qualifying. It's the amount of times you
see on the weekend and Facebook where can I watch the qualifying. One thing I would say against
that, if they're looking to have more viewers at the track, it does push that price up.
A consumer coming in for the whole weekend. Absolutely because they've then got to find
a place to stay in this locally or you risk the camping and you pay a lot before a weekend to do.
More time for the sponsors. Yeah, okay, I get that. But they would have had time
during qualifying as well. I don't necessarily buy that argument because
are you going to actually see sponsors go, oh, yeah, I'll chip in a little bit more money
because we're getting that on the Saturday. I doubt it.
And in the, this is a fair point to a degree in the long and short of it, there is no actual
extra track time because the qualifying is shorter and there's free practice. Therefore,
there won't be the same amount of mechanical wear and stuff like that. I agree to a point,
but obviously, practice, you're not racing, you're not like to get barged into anybody and
you're not putting it all on the line. But I do get the point. I think one of the other points I
have against it as well is that I think there's a real skill to qualifying. I think that it's
one lap pace. One lap pace. I think you, again, could bring an F1. I think that there are drives
in the F1 that have such good one lap pace compared to their race pace. Charlotte Clare
always comes to mind as one that I think is so quite quick over a lap.
We saw it this season from Daryl De Leon. Taking those two poles at Silverstone and at Brans,
we can see he's won that pace. He was there or there abouts at Not Kill as well when BMW were
really strong and towards the start of the season at Brans Hatch. But that didn't necessarily
transfer into race pace. And even sometimes it does transfer into race pace. If I was to say to
you, Tom Ingram's first title, one of the first things you'll talk to me about and vice-versa
was that qualifying lap he did at Brans Fool to get it on pole in the first place. It was one of
the best laps I've ever seen. And dare I say, are we going to now miss out on things like that?
Yeah, why would you? Because if you... Well, why would you? Especially if they're not going to show
this qualifying session and where the two 15-minute sessions go out. But why would you put it all on
the line in the sprint quali when you know that, okay, even if I finish two spaces down and just
make those up in the race? It's not the same as it was in the proper race on the Sunday.
I'd be interested to see how the records will change with a qualifying lap record,
whether it's whoever leads at the end of the qualifying race, or whether it's who puts in
the fastest lap in the qualifying sessions. Yeah, well, sprint races count as race wins.
Exactly. Because they don't in F1, do they? They don't count as a race. They don't count on your
stats, do they? No, because Oscar Piastres didn't have a win to his name until he took a fall.
Yeah. There's lots of changes afoot, and they may not necessarily all be in the right direction.
Please do let us know down below, because we'd be interested to hear your views.
Share those views on social media. Please have a sensible discussion about it.
I have to say, so far, everybody has been respected for us. I just... I don't see the point. That's
what I'm struggling with. There is so much you could change about touring cars. There is so much
that I think you could argue is wrong about the sport. And it's difficult, because you and I have
watched this series, perhaps because we're born more or less. Right. And it's... I love this sport,
but sometimes it is such a hard sport to love, because... It almost feels at times like it gets
left behind. Yeah. It feels like it's always trying to scrabble to be the next... Like, to have this
next great idea, but it's always... Like you say, it's just behind. Like, F1 have done this, and I
know they're in a different position financially and in the market, et cetera. They've tried this,
and it's... The jury's out to who it works on. The sprint tracks they've picked next year are
because I'm in Singapore, Sprint, I don't know. Yeah. But I just don't understand why they've
looked at this thing to change when there's so much more that could change on the Sunday as it is.
Yeah. I can kind of see why F1 want to shake it up with the sprint tracks, especially when they have
only those six throughout the whole season. It doesn't actually take up that many of the races.
No, but not going to Brazil is nonsense. I know. But yeah, having this coming as a hard,
fast set rule for 2026 for every single round, we may come to the end of 2026 and go,
yeah, it's brilliant. Like we did with the hybrid a couple of seasons ago, when it really worked,
and it really worked well. But standing here now... And at that point, they'll get rid of it.
Standing here now, I very much doubt it. Yeah, I do. And this is the other problem as well.
I may give you a little bit of a flip and joke there of the hybrid. These things seem to come
and go in British touring cars. Obviously, the hybrid is the next big thing. And the whole
motor sport world dropped it. And then a year later, touring cars did as well. Again, a bit left
behind. Now I've got the push to pass. Will that still be a thing in a couple of years time? I
don't know. Will there still be a thing next year? Yeah, they're still looking at sort of
alternative fuels. And that's all very good. But will they keep the TTB? I think it's madness
in the sprint. They're going to keep the TTB rules in place as well, because
how are you going to make any progress in the sprint? What's the point? I don't understand it.
There's so much that... I know that as a species, we hate change. I completely get that.
Some more than others. However, when the quantifying change was announced for this season,
I think that we and the most of the world of touring car world is fairly positive about it.
And any negative things that I did have, but then the season I stood back and said,
yeah, this is work. This is brilliant. What a great initiative. Also, we saw the spring hold
adjustment to it, where we had it brought in for a couple of sessions throughout the year.
And we thought, hang on, this is kind of work. Yeah, we want more of this. Whereas,
why can't you do that for this? Say, take three weekends out of the season and go, right, we're
going to have it in a sprint format and see whether it works. See the appetites there. It just feels
like they've jumped in with two feet and they could well end up on their face. And let's not
forget as well. And I don't want to keep ranting and raving for hours and hours and hours on this.
But like, they kind of back themselves into the corner of the tires this year,
which nobody liked. Everyone's been calling it out from, you know, from day one, but it got to
the point where, and we mentioned it throughout the season, drivers saying there's no point finishing
here. There's no point doing that. Weekends over this race is a pointless one. We might start on
pile, but we're on the wrong tire. So, you know, if we get 15, we'll be happy. And they back themselves
into a corner about that. So, they couldn't change it during the season. If this doesn't work,
and let's be honest, we've got a hit and miss record of things work or not.
I don't see how they can now change it halfway through and go, no, we're going to drop it for
the second half of the season. I think once you, especially when it has an impact on the championship
course, exactly. And that was the problem with the tires. So, like you say, surely the better
way of doing it was to go, okay, Silverstone makes sense because it's Silverstone. Do it there. We'll
put sprint races or whatever on and we'll see how it goes. You then got Short Track, Silverstone
Track and Croft. You've got Long Short and the Home Remote Sport. Do those three. See how it works.
Bring it in for the next year. If the whole fans go, yeah, I like that. Let's get more of that.
Let's have some more of that. Yeah, I don't know. Just a big fan feedback. We'll see.
As I've already said, let us lay your thoughts down below. We'll try and keep you up to date with
all the news stories that come as they come through the off season going into 2026. We're
currently working in the background on our awards show as well. So, you'll be seeing that coming out
around possibly even on Christmas Day. But yeah, until we get some more breaking news or something
else to rant about. There's always TCR. We'll be backing in soon. Until we speak again. Bye-bye.
About this episode
Significant changes to the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) qualifying format for 2026 have sparked intense debate among fans and commentators. The hosts express their concerns, labeling the new system as potentially the worst shake-up in decades, reminiscent of the 1999 exodus. They discuss the implications of reverse grids, ballast adjustments, and the introduction of a qualifying sprint race, questioning the impact on driver strategy and championship integrity. With notable team changes and driver movements on the horizon, the episode dives deep into the future of BTCC amidst growing skepticism.
