The British Touring Car Championship welcomed a newcomer to the Silverstone round of the 2021 BTCC championship with the race weekend debut of the new 2022 Cosworth BTCC Hybrid. 
Cosworth Electronics Head of Support, Neal Bateman, says, ‘We have been working tirelessly to prepare the all-new BTCC Hybrid car ahead of its competitive debut in 2022, and the Silverstone weekend was an important milestone in its development.’ Cosworth’s hybrid package has completed multiple private test days onboard the Toyota Corolla test car, accumulating the equivalent of more than an entire season’s worth of mileage. However, it still needed to collect essential data from an actual race weekend, hence the hybrid car taking part at Silverstone.
Why is BTCC going hybrid"

The entire hybrid system is in one unit. The battery management, motor control strategies, cooling, and control surrounding the internal combustion engine are managed by Cosworth’s Antares 8 ECU. This arrangement allowed Cosworth to cut crucial weight and free up additional space for the packaging of other components.
Cosworth Antares 8. Photo: Cosworth
The battery pack sits in a unique safety cell located where the existing success ballast box sits, enabling easy accessibility and keeping the weight within an already defined area. Another apt solution was incorporating the electric motor into the gearbox. Considering that the gearboxes are a spec part across the grid, it made sense...