Success ballast, qualifying rules tweaked for 2021

Organisers of the British Touring Car Championship have confirmed a series of changes ahead of the 2021 season following the latest meeting with the participating teams.

The major change is a revision to the success ballast rules which will now be increased after the latest generation of cars were seen to perform better with weight onboard than was previously the case.

As a result, maximum ballast will go back up from 60kg to 75kg, with the following scale now being used:

1 – 75kgs
2 – 66kgs
3 – 57kgs
4 – 48kgs
5 – 39kgs
6 – 33kgs
7 – 27kgs
8 – 21kgs
9 – 15kgs
10 – 9kgs

Following the successful trial of the ‘Top Ten Showdown’ system at Snetterton, a two-part qualifying session running to the same rules will be introduced at two further events venues for 2021, with Donington Park and Silverstone also featuring a ‘Showdown’ element.

All three meetings will feature a 25 minute Q1 session, with the top ten drivers going through to a ten minute second session to determine pole position.

The other major changes sees a return of the option tyre, albeit not at all venues.

Oulton Park, Snetterton and Croft will all see the soft Goodyear tyre used as an option tyre, with the medium tyre being the option for Knockhill. The option must be used at least once in race one, two and three across the four events – with the decision only needing to taken as cars leave the pits for the race.

The Goodyear medium tyre will be allocated for the two events at Brands Hatch as well as Donington Park and Silverstone, with Thruxton only featuring the hard compound rubber.

Reverse garages, trialled at Silverstone last year, will be used at ‘those venues where it is practical to do so’, with further information to be confirmed.