The BTCC Media Team recently caught up with Team VERTU star Tom Ingram, as the 2022 champion talked about his off-season, new-for-2025 rules and his team-mates at the Hyundai squad.
"I think the new rules are good," speaking on the introduction of 100% sustainable fuel and the completion of the hybrid cycle. "Naturally, I think the sustainable fuel is the biggest thing for me, that's a good change.
“The good thing is we still have effectively the same power on a push-to-pass button that we had with the hybrid, just without the extra weight of the batteries.
“Costs come down slightly, weight of the car comes down slightly, which means it's more nimble. I think they're good things.”
Having won his maiden Drivers’ title in 2022, Ingram has since gone on to narrowly miss out in each of the following two seasons. The Buckinghamshire racer was Ash Sutton’s main challenger in 2023 and entered last year’s season finale level on points with eventual champion Jake Hill.
In fact, Ingram’s switch to EXCELR8 Motorsport has formed one of the most formidable partnerships in recent BTCC history. A race-winning maiden season with the squad in 2021 was immediately followed by that memorable title, and then the two most-recent runner-up campaigns.
So, the 31-year-old will undoubtedly head into the new season as one of the title favourites, but the man himself is well aware that the level of competition will come from a number of different sources.
"The off-season is always a bit daft because no one really knows what anyone else is doing,” he said. “You take the fast guys at NAPA, they're going to be exactly the same. Daryl [DeLeon] in the 3 Series, he will be fast, plus you've got Jake [Hill] back in the seat.
"There's still going to be a lot of people in the same cars that are going to be very, very fast, but you can never rule anyone out. You've only got to see the performance that Power Maxed came out with over the winter… the pace they had last year. You've then got Restart Racing also with the Hyundais as well.
"There are lots of fast cars and fast teams all coming together now. So, you can never just go, we were quick last year, we'll be the same again next year. It never really works like that.
"Our off-season from the back of last year has been very strong, but until you get to that first qualifying session of the year, you don't know.”
Not only will the competition be fierce throughout the grid, Ingram is also buoyed by the line-up being built within Team VERTU.
"Obviously it's going to be nice that that Adam [Morgan] is going to be joining the team, that's really, really exciting,” concluded Ingram. “TC [Tom Chilton] back again, just the three of us already is going to be really good. The driver in the fourth car, I don't know who that will be yet.”
