Scott confirms BTCC return, aims for four Subarus

Scott will continue to race alongside last year’s series runner-up Jason Plato and 2014 champion Colin Turkington in the team's first year as a factory entrant.

Aron Smith's position in the team, however, was thrown into doubt at the end of 2015, when he became embroiled in a public team orders spat with two-time champion Plato at the Brands Hatch finale.

When asked by Motorsport.com about BMR's driver line-up for the year, Scott said he would be back in the driving seat, but wouldn't be drawn on the identity of the team's fourth driver.

“We’ll be fielding four cars," he said. "Hopefully they will all be Subarus. We’ll be trying to build the four in time. I’m driving one, so there’s one driver still to be announced."

Asked whether Alain Menu - who incidentally raced a Subaru in the TCR series for two rounds last year - could make a full-time BMR return, Scott added: “Alain remains a big part of Team BMR, and one way or another we hope he’ll be working with us this season.”

Menu worked as a driver coach for Scott in 2015, and was his replacement for last year’s season finale when a free practice crash at Silverstone left the Briton on the sidelines with two fractured vertebrae.

Scott was cautious about his team’s prospects for the start of the year with a brand new car and engine, which is being built and developed by Mountune.

“The aim is to win, we know it will be an uphill struggle to start with, but I think with the engineers and the team building the cars, we’ll come out of the box fairly strong,“ said Scott.

“We’re building a new engine and it won’t have done many miles, so we have to be realistic there, that it could take us a little while to get it right.

“Mountune are very experienced, but time will be the limiting factor to find any gremlins that could cause us problems.“

Team BMR first entered BTCC in 2013 with a sole Super 2000-spec Seat Leon for Scott, but switched to NGTC Volkswagen machinery after just half a season. Smith secured the team's first race win the following year.

2015 marked the team's breakthrough season after Plato and Turkington were signed, the former missing out on the title by just four points to Honda's Gordon Shedden.

Interview by Piotrek Magdziarz