Tom Chilton - Team Vertu - Brands Hatch Media Day 7th April 2026

Tom Chilton - Team Vertu - Brands Hatch Media Day 7th April 2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Well, Tom, good to uh see you here at Brands Hatch Sunshin. We've got the 2026 season to look forward to. I do wish people could see the smile on your face and the look in your eye, because you're raring to go, aren't you?

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Well, I'm at my favourite racetrack. I love Brands Hatch. I've actually put my Willow Wat Mops on my ashes spread brown here. I love the place. Um I live half now down the road, and there's nothing better than sat here right now looking at blue sky around Bransatch. I'm actually jealous we're not driving today because it looks quite good, the circuit. It looks clean, looks like there's a little bit of rubber down. I think it'd be quite quick today. It looks like a good day to go testing. But we are out tomorrow, so I can't wait for that.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

That's all good. Um, what have you been occupying yourself with uh in the off-season?

SPEAKER_00 0:45

So when I'm not racing, I am commercial director at Birch, my car storage company, which is expanding. We've just moved to Brooklyn's uh overlooking Mercedes-Benz World, which stores between the two facilities 1,400 cars. Uh, and I really enjoy storing beautiful cars, they're like pieces of art. And you wouldn't store them in your garage, a piece of art, would you? So you've got to be stored in a special facility at the right temperature and everything, and um security and fast pressure and all the rest of it. We tick all the boxes, but that's what I've been doing. Have done a little bit of testing uh the British touring car, and I've been out a couple of times in the RML um P39, which is the GT Hypercar, because I'm chief development test driver for them and that. Um, and uh I'm not racing the British touring car with them. I've stuck with Accelerate Motorsport because I've I've been with them now for for half a decade and uh got a great relationship with the team and and Tom Ingram, my teammate. We've we've we've had a really good run of it, and I feel like consistency this year is going to be key. Yeah, and so I really wanted to just I think I think the team virtue does such a great job. I just didn't want to go anywhere else. So I'm excited to another year.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Talking of of time and timings, we were chatting earlier in the in the day about the number of fathers and sons that you have raced against. Uh I mean you've got quite a track record there.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Sorry, the son. You actually look back at it, it's pretty crazy. So obviously, Mike Jordan back in the day I was racing with, and uh Rob Collard, probably more nose to bumper uh lap-by-lap moments with Rob than anyone. Huge respects, great driver. We did a lot of a lot of races together. And then obviously Mike left, and his son Andrew came along, and obviously was BTC champion. Um, so I raced against his son, and then I'm now about to race, not only race against him, but obviously he's gonna be my teammate is Ricky Collard. So, um, Rob's son. So, yeah, it's it's nice. All I need now is Matt Nil to get Henry in, one of his boys. You've got a full house and I can race against him. I need Jason Plato to convince his daughter to get into it. Like I said, I've raced all the fathers and all the sons and daughters, so that's because I've been in it forever. Now, let's look ahead to uh the season.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Uh, you're in what a lot of people consider to be probably the best car on the grid, and and has been proven to be perhaps the case. Uh we spoke last year, uh roughly the same time before the start of the season, and I said, I remember asking you, is this your season? And you looked at me like you do now and said, I hope so. During the season, you've had some amazing performances last year, and and the trajectory was going in the right way. So I'm gonna ask you the same question again. Is this your year?

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Oh, every year's my year. I wouldn't race if I didn't think it was. You know, I had a had a bit of bad luck last year, a few things which didn't go my way, um, either on track or with the um with reliability. There's one part particular was quite bad on my car, but we we've we've changed that. And um so reliability now won't be an issue. That was a big part. So I I I finished obviously seventh last year in the championship. Um but it wasn't for the even the last two races of the year here when I would have I was in second place at the time, um, I would have finished sixth in the championship. The year before that I was ninth. You know, this year I'd like to be third. I'd like to just go, you know, ninth. This is this is my third year of Barry Plowon as my engineer, and we're just we're just ticking all the boxes and chipping away. Um, but you know, that the the package is fantastic. We've just been refining it and refining it. We're not trying to, you know, reinvent the wheel. We're literally just refining what we've got every time we go out, and it is it's just always getting better. Uh I kept I keep thinking at the end of the year, God, what are we gonna do next? Haven't we done everything on the car? But then we've just tried something else and gone a little bit quicker again, so I'm like that worked. So it's it's it's nice that we just keep keep developing it.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

The championship has always been very closely fought. I mean, when we when we go around the the shorter circuit here at Brand's hatch, there is under a second between the front of the grid and and the back of the grid. Do you think that's going to continue to get more competitive?

SPEAKER_00 5:00

I think this year is going to be quite important for a lot of young drivers mentally, because if they're doing well at one point, they won't be the next. Because the difference this year is is with the Toca Turbo Boost, so two years ago it was the hybrid, last year was Tokka Turbo Turbo Boost, and this year it's still Toca Turbo Boost. Still the same amount of power and you hit the button. But the difference is it's not if if you're further down the grid, you get 20 seconds now, not 15 seconds, but rather than starting from 115 kilometres an hour, it starts from 105 kilometres an hour. And for the people at the front, like the winner, for example, they still get their their one second, but it doesn't start from 135, it starts from 140 kilometers an hour. So, and that changes when you put a wet tar on, it all raises up again. So around Brands Hatch Indy in the rain, for example, you might only get a few seconds because it's such a high speed, it's quite hard to actually use it. So there'll be points where you can use it, like Sneterton, you can use it, three-mile lap with lots of long straights, you can use all 20 seconds, and that makes a 1.3 second lap difference. Um, or you could you know use it on another circuit and it does seven tenths, you know. So there's quite a big difference in circuit and how you can use it. Um but if you're going now into the quality race, it you it's still a quality race, so it's much it's half points, half distance. But it's the way you use the tocker, the tocker turbo boost is very much like you would in qualifying. So whether the whether where whether where this is I'm trying to teach everyone listening in case they don't know the rules, because it is very different, it's quite confusing, but I need to tell everyone. Yeah, so we've still got the the race one, two, three on the Sunday, which is now going to be two, three, four, effectively, in my mind. That's all basically the same as last year. Nothing's changed other than the difference amount of seconds and the speeds. That's all stayed the same relatively. But the Saturday's different, so we have free practice one in the morning, then we have free practice two, which is now going to be qualifying effectively, because where you qualify uh at like 11:30 or whenever it is, you're then going to be going straight into uh qualifying, could be quite as soon after, actually. I've heard it could even be 10 minutes after, so it could be very soon. You're not allowed to touch a car, you're you so you have to put the same fuel in for qualifying to then stay the same to last through the quality race afterwards. We've run them quite heavy, so that's something to bear in mind. So, say for the leader, for example, gets one second in qualifying each lap to use in qualifying. Now, when you go to the race, you're allowed one whole lap of last year was 15 seconds, and this year one whole lap be 20 seconds, but that's only in race two, three, four. The quality race, you only get to use the one second in one lap for the the whole race. Right. So you've got the quality race, the where you qualify means you can then go backwards quite quickly again, just because a car can do up the straight. So, and where you what tyre you qualify on, obviously you've got to use in the quality race as well. So you've got the same tyres, but the difference in power is huge. Like, honestly, that's gonna make such a difference because you will uh be overtaken up the straight quite easily. Yeah, um, if someone uses six seconds at one straight and you've got none, I mean, literally, it's it's it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

So, so with the new regulations, and thank you for explaining that, that is absolutely brilliant. Everybody should listen to your explanation of how it's going to work because now I understand it as well. What have the conversations been like with the team about the strategy for this season now you've got this new qualifying setup?

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Well, I've been thinking about it quite a lot in my sleep, and I'm gonna keep that to myself because I think there's an advantage in my strategy, so I'm gonna tell it on the radio. Um, but there will be a little bit of tactics to play. I mean, fundamentally, you need to keep a strong head and be consistent, not make mistakes, which I'm quite excited about, being the old man with loads of experience, but I feel like it's very easy for people to make mistakes this year, because like I said, the difference in qualifying quality race, going into the next race, people say somebody's qualified, um, I don't know, say ninth, for example, um, they could come through to win the race, potentially, in the quality race, which is only half points, remember. But then go to race one, all the people at the front have gone back to eighth, they get 20 seconds. Now, 20 seconds around Donington Park is over a second lap difference. So the guys who won the race thinking, oh yeah, we're leading the championship doing really well, and I want to defend really crazy because I'm leading the championship, we'll go back past. Um, and then you've then got for the next race, the same as last year. The top three have got to run the next available hardest compound tire. Yeah, so that'll slow them up a bit. So then you know, they should drop down a bit, or they should will definitely drop down because they've got less power and they got the slower tires and then drop down for race two, but then you get hopefully a reverse grid and whoop back up at the top for race three. There'll be a lot of up and downs.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

It's gonna be fun, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 10:04

A lot of up and downs. So it's gonna be fantastic because it you could have 15 race winners this year, it could be it could be really interesting, like very exciting. It's great for everyone racing, great for sponsors, you get their limelight on the podium. It's great, honestly, it's fantastic. I'm I think it's brilliant, but like as much as I didn't like the rules in Formula One, 50% electric, 50% engine, and they're charging up round 120R rounds of Azuka, which should be a flat out brilliant corner, and that's just slower because they're charging up their battery ready for Shane. But actually, the racing is more exciting because of it, you know. So, as much as I don't like it, I like racing, you see, and the racing is exciting, a bit more dangerous than the driver. Um, but they get paid a lot of money, so it can be a bit dangerous. But it's really exciting. I think BCC this year is gonna be the most exciting year of all time, and I'm very happy that I'm still young enough to race in it. You hear the fourth.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Um Tom, just uh you've done some testing, obviously, at Croft. You you've been happy with the the setup of the car?

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Very happy. Um, I was really happy, and then we've refined it again. Um, we did another two days at Sneston. I've done some more tweaks to the chassis, and it's even better again. So I now need to back to back that round a slow speed circuit because it's very different, obviously, to Sneston's a bit more mid-corner speed, a bit higher speed. If I can get it to work tomorrow round here, uh back to back in the changes like it worked at Snedherton last week, then I'm cooking on gas. I'm excited. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Have a great season, Tom. Um, as you know, at the beginning of the season, I like to do a little fun end to our chats. Yeah, three questions. Uh choose two, one, two, or three.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Well, I'm car number three, so I'm going three.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Um if you have to stop in an emergency area, what must you do? This is on a normal road. Put on your when you're leaving the emergency area, must you put on your hazards, put on your headlights, uh, use the emergency phone, or slow arm movement out of the driver's window?

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Whereabouts on any UK area?

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Any emergency any emergency area. So let's assume it's a mess away. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

You've got the telephone on the left, you pull over there, for example.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Can you read the question again?

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Yeah, what must you do before you leave that emergency area? Hazard lights on, headlights on. Hazard lights, definitely. No, according to the highway code, no. According to the highway code, you must use the emergency phone in case they need to make provision for you to safely get back on the carriageway.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Really?

SPEAKER_01 12:25

Your second question, choose another line.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

And I didn't pass everybody my driving licence.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Right. Choose another mum. One or two. Uh gonna go, pole position. One. At 40 miles an hour, what's the stopping distance in either metres, feet, or car lengths?

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Did a speed awareness course a few weeks ago and they told me this one. I was shocked at one mile an hour, the difference it made. Yes, that's an interesting one. Genuinely shocked me that one. Yeah. Um it's like seven car lengths or something. It's nine car lengths. Yeah. 182 feet. Of course you would.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

Of course you would.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

These guys they used to test out the how fast they stop. They get away from the case.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Can I just go to when you did your speed awareness course? Did anybody recognise you?

SPEAKER_00 13:16

There's a lady. Because they're all over the you know, United Kingdoms. There's one in Belfast, there's one in Liverpool. There's someone in Catram and I live in Rygate. So that's only like a 15 minute drive. And she's like, oh hi! And I'm like, shh. I'm a professional sportsman. Don't say anything else.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Tom, really good to see you as always. Have a great season. Lovely to see you, Steve. Thank you. Cheers.