[BTCC] BTCC 2023 season discussion, News and Rumours!

[AnnoyedMoose]

I think bringing back the option tyre is a good idea. With no ballast if you hit the sweet spot with the car you're pretty much guaranteed two race wins so the option will spice things up a bit. It's an entertainment series after all.

[BobJones]

Croft Circuit coming to PC simulator rFactor 2 this month, the first time it's ever been laser scanned.

Hoping for Thruxton or Oulton next, please.

I make that Brands, Donington, Croft, Silverstone plus the Toyota, Ford, Hyundai, Infiniti and BMW official BTCC content delivered this year - maybe the full grid and calendar by early 2023?

https://traxion.gg/north-yorkshires-...r-2-simulator/

[redshoes]

https://www.btcc.net/2022/11/04/nick...-2023-line-up/

Nick Halstead in Excelr8 Hyundai

[S griffin]

Halstead seemed to go alright in his one off outing a couple of years ago. So it'll be interesting to see him full time in the series

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Halstead seemed to go alright in his one off outing a couple of years ago. So it'll be interesting to see him full time in the series

He has to be one of the early favourites for the Jack Sears surely?

2022 TBL	Team	Car	Driver	Status	Jack Sears
EXCELR8-1	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	Ingram	Confirmed in press release	Inel.
EXCELR8-2	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	Chilton	Confirmed in press release	Inel.
EXCELR8-3	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	Lloyd?	Talked about being confident of 2023 drive	Inel.
EXCELR8-4	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	Halstead	Confirmed in press release	Elig.
Team Dynamics-1	Halfords/Cataclean?	Civic?	Shedden?	Talked about next year with the team	Inel.
Team Dynamics-2	Halfords/Cataclean?	Civic?	Rowbottom?	Talked about next year with the team	Inel.
Aiden Moffat-1	Laser Tools?	???	Moffat?	Infiniti described as being end of life by the team	Inel.
Aiden Moffat-2	Laser Tools?	???	???	Infiniti described as being end of life by the team	???
Motorbase-1	NAPA Racing	???	Sutton	Confirmed as 3-year deal in press release, talk of new build car	Inel.
Motorbase-2	NAPA Racing	???	Cammish	Confirmed as 3-year deal in press release, talk of new build car	Inel.
Motorbase-3	???	???	Osborne?	Talked about looking forward to next year with the team	Elig.
Motorbase-4
HARD.-1	HARD.	Cupra	Taylor-Smith	Confirmed as multi-year in press release	Inel.
HARD.-2	HARD.	Cupra	Thompson?	Talked about his next year in the car	Inel.
HARD.-3	HARD.	Cupra	Hamilton?	Talked about his next year in the car	Inel.
Speedworks-1	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK?	Corolla?	Butcher?	Talked about wanting another year with the team	Inel.
Speedworks-2
WSR-1
WSR-2
WSR-3	MB Motorsport?	BMW 330e?	Hill?	Talked about being back next year in the same team	Inel.
Ciceley-1
Ciceley-2
PMR-1	PMR	Astra?	Hand	Confirmed as multi-year in press release	Elig.
PMR-2
BTC-1	Rich Energy BTC Racing?	???	???	Reported as considering a new build	???
BTC-2	Rich Energy BTC Racing?	???	???	Reported as considering a new build	???
BTC-3	Rich Energy BTC Racing?	???	???	Reported as considering a new build	???
Boardley-1	???	???	Boardley?	Has described 2022 as a sabbatical	Elig.
Boardley-2
TOCA-1
TOCA-2
TOCA-3
???	Graves Motorsport?	???	Max Coates?	Outlined plans for an entry in 2021	Elig.
???	Parker Motorsport?	Alfa Giulia?	???	Press release states a planned return after hybrid is introduced	???
???	Parker Motorsport?	Alfa Giulia?	???	Press release states a planned return after hybrid is introduced	???
???
???	MB Motorsport	???	???	Talked about a 2-car entry for 2023	???
???	Bert Taylor Racing	???	???	Talked about getting a TBL for 2023	???
???	???	???	Proctor?	Has described 2022 as a sabbatical	Inel.
???	???	???	Smelt?	Has described 2022 as a sabbatical	Elig.
???	Volvo	Kia	T.Harvey	Rumoured in threads every year, has to be true one day	Inel.

[Robin Marriott]

Originally Posted by BobJones

Croft Circuit coming to PC simulator rFactor 2 this month, the first time it's ever been laser scanned.

Hoping for Thruxton or Oulton next, please.

I make that Brands, Donington, Croft, Silverstone plus the Toyota, Ford, Hyundai, Infiniti and BMW official BTCC content delivered this year - maybe the full grid and calendar by early 2023?

https://traxion.gg/north-yorkshires-...r-2-simulator/

They’ve said in some replies on Twitter “We haven’t announced all BTCC tracks, and in fact likely won’t develop them all”

I was hoping they’d build the whole game, including all the tracks and cars in RF2 then port it to console and rebrand it as the BTCC game but it looks like it’ll be half a job.

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Halstead seemed to go alright in his one off outing a couple of years ago. So it'll be interesting to see him full time in the series

Really? He's been a backmarker and crash-magnet in everything he's bought himself a seat in, honestly shocked he would even be a candidate (£££). To be fair he's had a couple of decent runs in British GT this year, though as the Am. Hope to be proved wrong obviously and good luck to him all the same, but expect he'll be 2023's Will Powell or Mark Howard.

That means either Butel or Lloyd out of Excelr8 then.

[SSmith]

Nick Halstead as the 3rd Excelr8 driver was certainly not what I expected!

He was competent on debut at Croft in 2021, not qualifying last and I think not too far off the likes of Hamilton, Butel, and Neate on race pace.

He has definitely improved in GT3 machinery (especially at Spa this year) but his G55 GT4 campaign wasn't great (why he was in G55 Pro I don't know, but even compared to G55 Ams Morris and Duggan he wasn't fast). Him seemingly quitting GT racing is interesting, I wonder what Fox Motorsport will do in British GT going forward?

I'd think he'd be at a comparable level to Butel given the speed of the i30 N and what seems to be a decent pre-season testing plan.

Justina Williams said “Although the BTCC is going to be a different challenge, Nick is someone who has shown he has the drive and desire to achieve his goals, and when you also add in his business acumen, I’m confident that this can be the start of a successful partnership both on and off track during the year ahead.” Seems like he's bringing some £££ to the team to help it going forward, guess they had to finance the building of at least 1 new/upgraded chassis somehow.

I would imagine the 4th Excelr8 seat has a lot of interested parties.

[Robshillito1990]

Originally Posted by Robin Marriott

They’ve said in some replies on Twitter “We haven’t announced all BTCC tracks, and in fact likely won’t develop them all”

I was hoping they’d build the whole game, including all the tracks and cars in RF2 then port it to console and rebrand it as the BTCC game but it looks like it’ll be half a job.

Well Thruxton is going to be added as that's what track the screenshots of the bmw were taken on. So that leaves Oulton Park. Not sure whoever posted that was official to the game as they announced a few months back all cars and tracks would be added due to the game being put back to 2023

[Matt K]

Hardly exciting addition to the grid but such drivers (deep-pocketed) are sadly important/necessary for teams. Hopefully it's not Lloyd who's leaving. Lineup consisting of Tingram, Chilton, Halstead and Butel would be truly underwhelming for such a team. Chilton is a solid mid-pack driver now, Ingram a champion, Halstead will be a backmarker so would be great if Lloyd stayed with the team to somehow bridge the gap between Ingram and the rest of the team and help the team move forward. Be that Lloyd or anyone else who can be in the sharp end of the grid anyway.
I suspect £££ might be an issue for Lloyd, this season was exhausting for him in this regard.

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by Matt K

Hardly exciting addition to the grid but such drivers (deep-pocketed) are sadly important/necessary for teams. Hopefully it's not Lloyd who's leaving. Lineup consisting of Tingram, Chilton, Halstead and Butel would be truly underwhelming for such a team. Chilton is a solid mid-pack driver now, Ingram a champion, Halstead will be a backmarker so would be great if Lloyd stayed with the team to somehow bridge the gap between Ingram and the rest of the team and help the team move forward. Be that Lloyd or anyone else who can be in the sharp end of the grid anyway.
I suspect £££ might be an issue for Lloyd, this season was exhausting for him in this regard.

I agree with you on all points. Chilton is getting a new chassis for '23 so he may get a little quicker, but they need someone else regularly finishing top 10 if they want to win the Teams and Manufacturers championship. Lloyd can do that (and did so for most of the '22 season). Given Lloyd's never driven a car for more than 1 season, he would definitely get closer to Ingram's pace with a 2nd year in the i30 N.

[rdjones]

Originally Posted by Robin Marriott

They’ve said in some replies on Twitter “We haven’t announced all BTCC tracks, and in fact likely won’t develop them all”

I was hoping they’d build the whole game, including all the tracks and cars in RF2 then port it to console and rebrand it as the BTCC game but it looks like it’ll be half a job.

They have just confirmed that Thruxton will be available from 7th November it looks to me that rFactor2 is become the BTCC game that we promised a couple of years back.

https://twitter.com/rFactor2/status/1588561093311332353

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by rdjones

They have just confirmed that Thruxton will be available from 7th November it looks to me that rFactor2 is become the BTCC game that we promised a couple of years back.

when they announced the game delay they said they would release some cars and tracks on the rFactor platform in the interim to help ease the wait and so thats exactly what they are doing

https://racinggames.gg/news/official...layed-to-2024/

[Millvi]

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ckkfsj6Nh3r/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

2023 plans for Crees in this article. PMR? Team Hard? Speedworks? Or GTs?

[Sodemo]

Originally Posted by touring fan01

when they announced the game delay they said they would release some cars and tracks on the rFactor platform in the interim to help ease the wait and so thats exactly what they are doing

https://racinggames.gg/news/official...layed-to-2024/

Probably the greatest thing that could have happened since I don’t have much faith that the btcc game will be a “simulator” in the strictest sense.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

Probably the greatest thing that could have happened since I don’t have much faith that the btcc game will be a “simulator” in the strictest sense.

Most BTCC fans would be upset if the real championship was closer to pure racing. They would probably complain it is too boring.
A simulator would be a bit too far from the typical BTCC follower's expectation I expect.

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by Millvi

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ckkfsj6Nh3r/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

2023 plans for Crees in this article. PMR? Team Hard? Speedworks? Or GTs?

Mentions lots of options in a short article! All very interesting, would be good to see him in something a little bit quicker than the Vauxhall. Also a mention right at the end of PMR potentially changing cars.

[S griffin]

Crees isn't too bad a driver. Be interesting to see where he ends up

[AnnoyedMoose]

Originally Posted by Matt K

Hardly exciting addition to the grid but such drivers (deep-pocketed) are sadly important/necessary for teams. Hopefully it's not Lloyd who's leaving.

Do you think they charge a drive like Halstead more than they do Lloyd? I wouldn't be happy if I was Halstead if that were the case.

At the end of the day motorsport is a business first and foremost.

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by SSmith

Mentions lots of options in a short article! All very interesting, would be good to see him in something a little bit quicker than the Vauxhall. Also a mention right at the end of PMR potentially changing cars.

Maybe buy the Focus from
Motorbase?

[Sodemo]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Most BTCC fans would be upset if the real championship was closer to pure racing. They would probably complain it is too boring.
A simulator would be a bit too far from the typical BTCC follower's expectation I expect.

I think it’s a good thing because touring cars is under represented in modern race sims (in general). Even fairly recently sims like Assetto Corsa only has maybe half a dozen touring cars and only one which is FWD (the Arbarth Cup car).

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

Maybe buy the Focus from Motorbase?

I would imagine that would be an option for them. Their current Astras are getting on a bit and should probably be retired. I guess it depends on funds/sponsors/potential dealer backing etc. whether PMR try and build new-shape Astras, buy an existing car from the grid, or go in a different direction completely. If they keep the current car they are only going to go backwards in '23 imo.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by SSmith

I would imagine that would be an option for them. Their current Astras are getting on a bit and should probably be retired.

Would it make much difference if they switched to the Focus?

Crees's car was only built last year, and thus younger than the car driven by Osborne this season.

[SSmith]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Would it make much difference if they switched to the Focus?

Crees's car was only built last year, and thus younger than the car driven by Osborne this season.

It might do, it might not, who knows? Sometimes you've got to take a gamble.

I would add to my earlier comment that a new-build car with a more modern and aerodynamic shape and with hybrid better integrated (and maybe even RWD...) is probably a better option than the Focus, but as I said, these are among many options for the team going forwards that will be dependent on funds/sponsors/potential dealer backing etc.

The Astra K is an older shape (2015 road car, 2017 debut in BTCC) so whilst Crees's chassis may be from 2021 the shape of the car itself is a bit out of date. One wonders if a more modern donor car may help them move forwards. Merely a hypothesis that could get proven wrong if the Astras are on the grid next year.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Crees's car was only built last year, and thus younger than the car driven by Osborne this season.

That Astra may have been first raced last year but it used a shell designed and built in 2017. It may have hard marginally less use that the Focus but it's still a relatively old design.