Driver Contracts

[Andy Metcalf]

This question of which Driver may or may not be driving for whichever team keeps us all amused until the lights go green on Press Day. The thing that also occours to me is how long are the contracts that are being signed and how much of this confusion will there be in 2004? Greenflag are committed to the end of 2004. But how many Teams and Drivers can say the same? For example has Tom Chilton got one year to prove himself at Honda or has he been given two years? Perhaps something which might help the sport is if Teams and Drivers made a longer term committment to the sport. But of course it comes down to the fact that some Drivers are paid to drive and some through their sponsors have to pay to drive.

[kykiske]

i think im right im saying Reid and Hughes are contracted to MG for at least the remaninder of this season.... even though they aren't conifirmed for BTCC yet

[Super Tourer]

I would imagine most drivers are on 1 year contracts with options to extend. This gives the manufacturer flexibility should they decide to can the project after one year, whilst holding first option on their drivers.

I would guess that Thommo and Muller are on one year deals as Vauxhall probably haven't even decided if they will continue into 2004 yet.

Like many things from the ST days, I think multi-year contracts of the type that Menu & Reid used to enjoy, are a thing of the past. IMO.

[Thommo fan]

i agree with btccnews, i think that the teams and manufacturers need to show more commitment to the btcc. personally i think that at the end of this season MG will leave for the etcc, if proton don't win they will leave, vauxhall only stayed this year because its their centinary.
i pray this doesn't happen tho.

[Peter S]

There is no way Vauxhall will ever leave the BTCC. They ahve been in it right from the start through thick and thin. I think if you remember back they have said they wouldnt continue in previous years like in 98 i think when the vectra wasnt competitve at all. Also there is no other racing market for vauxhall to be involved in apart from the British rally championship which doesnt generate much interest.

Proton is fully commited for 2004 as well, part of three year plan, which looks like it will be extended further due to there increased marketing of Proton cars.

As for Honda then it is HOnda GB calling the shots so they will remain as well, as it is independent of honda europe.

Then there is MG. I someone doubt they will go to the ETCC, for the same reasons why volvo withdrew. The boss of volvo has been quoted as saying "ETCC in its current shape wasn't that attractive sporting wise".

With the live television coverage this will bolster the series further and i belive the btcc will have 6 manufacturers in 2004, with the return of ford and a member of the volkswagen group (skoda, seat or audi). I also think peugeotGB will return at some stage soon as well due to british rallying not giving them a return on there investment. Well one thing is for sure and that is peugeot would get more value out of the btcc than richard burns driving for them in the world rally championship.

I completely agree with what richard west said about privateers being the future. It is neccesary that there is a minimum of 8-10 privateers and all btcc cars are retained and run in some shape of form. This would prevent cars like the alfa 147, peugeot 406 etc going on the scrap heap.

AS for driver contracts then they mean absoultely nothing in motor racing. They can be terminated or breeched at ease by either the driver or the management which is probably why you are seeing only one year deals. The same applies to formula one. Most deals seem to be one year with an option.

In tom chiltons case, as he is a pay driver, then his contract will be for as long as his wallet allows.

[Super Tourer]

Not sure about the future of the BTCC, in terms of risk v reward the ETCC is more attractive to car makers - to me, seeking parity between the rules increasingly makes sense.

For example, Alfa Romeo sell's less than 10,000 cars a year in the UK, making a BTCC campaign hard to justify - whereas a 'nibble' out of each country's marketing budget into the ETCC makes sense. Alfa UK part funded Tom Ferrier's ETCC campaign last year and no doubt used the two UK races to market to customers and support dealers, much more cost effective than funding a two car BTCC team.

Not sure we will see VW brands in the BTCC for the same reason, makes more sense for them to market the brand via the ETCC, gives them coverage across their marketplace including the UK.

On the other hand, for Proton the BTCC makes sense as other European countries are not heavy buyers of Asian cars.

Vauxhall are a special case as the brand only exists in the UK. As I put in another post, if we had parity, 888 (for example) could badge Astra's as Opel's for the BTCC, similarly no doubt BMW and Alfa would also send some cars into the BTCC - but to build cars to another set of rules for a purely national series is hard for car makers to justify.

Take Nissan, the whole reason they pulled out in 1999 was that the team was mostly funded by Nissan Europe, who cried enough when all their money was going into a UK series. Nissan UK couldn't justify the cost to continue on their own.

I agree Honda UK are funding the Civic Type R, but Andy P jumped ship as Honda were dithering over whether to continue in the BTCC, which questions their overall long term approach to the BTCC.

Ford are under massive pressure to stem losses and cut costs, so it's by no means certain they will come back into the BTCC. Ford Europe seem to control budgets, so it may be more viable for them to go the ETCC route

As we write, we still don't know if Honda will enter 3 cars, or have any offical plans from MG, which leads me to believe there is still plenty of 'coughing' going on behind the scene's.

This is why TOCA need to secure the future of privateer entries and encourage more work's assisted projects as opposed to 'pure' factory teams.

Ironically attracting more works teams like say BMW or Audi could be a bad thing for the BTCC, as undoubtedly they would raise the game and costs to a higher level and start the whole vicious circle off again.

[Mocko]

Maybe they should go overseas to Spa.

[Peter S]

Dont forget thought there is still 3 months till the season kicks into life at mondello. Last year MG only had one new car for the first round of the championship, so this year they are a lot better prepared. the same applies to honda as things never happen quickly with them.

As for having the same regs as europe i completely agree. But dont forget the btcc rules were adopted a year before and the etcc had the chance to use these regs. To me the BTCC regs are a lot better as they do provide better racing and more overtaking due to the standard rear wings. The other benefit of the btcc regs are that they are more cost effective as the negative point of the etcc is that costs are in danger of spiriling out of hand as with a manufacturer like bmw are prepared to throw more and more money along with more and more cars to guarentee success. I belive they will wreck the etcc just like Alfa romeo started the downfall of supertouring when they joined the BTCC. When alfa arrived at 1994 with there fancy "wings" and "splitters" that signalled the begining of the decline as they had a budget of nearly 4 to 5 times more than works teams were running on. That was why i said in another thread that the ETCC is not all that it is cracked up to be, contributing to volvos withdrawal. I feel that seat will be in the same situation this year and wont be able to compete at all.

The frustrating thing is, is that this applies to all forms of motorsport. Weather its formula 1, touring cars or even karting the cost to go racing these days are getting out of hand, having raced at super 1 kart level then i have witnessed this.

That is the sad thing about motor racing, the talented drivers never get to shine through, cos those who buy the drives will always have better equipment, which is also applies to manufacturers.

The final problem now is that several manufacturers are owned are related to eahc other. Like Vw/Seat/Audi, Renault and Nissan, Volvo Ford and Jaguar and so on. This is why the btcc will never have the 8 manufactures it had back in its hey day. We have 4 there now in the championship and all you seem to get is critiscm about the btcc. I thought last year was won of the best years racing wise i have seen since 1992/93. The regulatioons are just right, the tv coverage is in place, crowds are coming back, and in richard west we have the best guy you could wish for in running the series. He has done a superb job and in 2003 this will continue to build, to have a cracking 2004.

In motor sport you have to "use it or loose it" It's all about belief with a vision and the 4 manufacturers in the series right now share that vision of success.

This is just my opinion, it may be right it may be wrong, but this year will be a cracker long term contracts will come back as will stability into british motorsport.

[James Kaye]

Long term contracts are few and far between these days I'm afraid. Even if you have a contract in place, you're not neccessarily guaranteed a drive. Someone else could come in with more funding than you and take a drive ahead of you. Nobody has a contract stating that they have a guaranteed seat.