Plato Racing confirms expected RML tie-up

The new Plato Racing team has confirmed the expected news of a tie-up with RML ahead of the 2026 BTCC season.

RML will take on the build of the two cars that will be entered by the team headed by two-time champion Jason Plato, which has now moved into premises next to RML in Wellingborough.

Plato himself secured his second BTCC title whilst racing a Chevrolet Cruze for RML in 2010, with the team having also lifted the championship crown with John Cleland and Laurent Aiello whilst running factory Vauxhall and Nissan programmes in the 1990s.

RML’s most recent success in touring cars came in the WTCC, where it scored three title wins with Yvan Muller and one with Rob Huff whilst operating Chevrolet’s factory programme.

Delivery of the Plato Racing cars – the identity of which remains under wraps despite instense speculation – is expected early next year before pre-season testing kicks off.

“RML was a no-brainer for me,” Plato told Motorsport News. “It is just the best collection of people you could get. I have driven for some top, top teams in my time and RML stands as, head and shoulders, the best.

“No-one on the BTCC grid has access to this kind of resource and there are a lot of very clever people at RML. They are being paid to design and build the car and once it is built, they will hand the car over to Plato Racing and the rest will be up to us.”

Whilst drivers for the programme have yet to be confirmed, the engineering team behind the scenes has started to take shape, with Malcolm Swetnam taking up the role of race team manager following his departure from Alliance Racing in the latter stages of the 2025 campaign.

Paul Ridgway will then take up a position of Head of Performance Engineering, with Dave Kelly as Crew Chief.