HMS Racing's Alfa Romeo BTCC car unveiled at ASI

The car will be driven by Rob Austin, who is remaining with the team after two seasons in Handy Motorsport’s Toyota Avenis. Handy rebranded to HMS Racing over the winter.

Austin said: “We are so proud to finally be unveiling the new Alfa, everyone in our team has put in an incredible amount of work to keep the project on schedule while maintaining an impressive attention to detail.

“We also have to give a huge amount of credit to our fantastic technical partners, this is a unique BTCC car and both Willie Poole Motorsport Services and ABS Motorsport have really gone above and beyond, on the bodyshell and bodywork respectively, to overcome the challenges involved in such a unique design and still meet their deadlines.”

Austin finished 11th in the overall BTCC standings last year and won the final round of the championship at Brands Hatch. He ended up in fifth place in the Independents Trophy chase.

Team boss Simon Belcher, a former competitor in the series, said that the team was looking forward to an intensive test programme to get the most from the front-wheel-drive machine.

“It’s very emotional to see the response to the Alfa Romeo we have designed and built ourselves from the ground up,” said Belcher. “I did a very hard thing in stepping out of the driving seat myself in the BTCC to spend more time overseeing the team’s progress and then developing such a stunning car.

“Our engineer Matt Taylor and the rest of the team have done an incredible job and I am extremely proud of what we have achieved. However, a beautiful car is only part of the journey – now we need to make it win!”

Matt James