HMS Racing reveals Alfa Romeo Giulietta

HMS Racing has revealed its brand new Alfa Romeo Giulietta for the first time ahead of the 2018 British Touring Car Championship season.

The formerly named Handy Motorsport outfit announced it would be bringing Alfa Romeo back to the BTCC with a dealership backed programme during Rockingham's August meeting last season.

On schedule, the highly evocative Giulietta, which will be driven by BTCC race-winner Rob Austin, broke cover today [Thursday] at the Autosport International Show.

"We are so proud to finally be unveiling the new Alfa," said Austin.

"Everyone in our team has put in an incredible amount of work to keep the project on schedule while maintaining an impressive attention to detail.

"We also have to give a huge amount of credit to our fantastic technical partners, this is a very unique BTCC car and both Willie Poole Motorsport Services and ABS Motorsport have really gone above and beyond, on the shell and bodywork respectively, to overcome the challenges involved in such a unique design and still meet their deadlines."

Having launched the Alfa Romeo this early in pre-season, Austin and Simon Belcher's HMS Racing squad can now set about developing the FWD Giulietta with ample time ahead of its debut BTCC campaign.

"All in all, we are in a very good place," Austin continued.

"We have a great team of guys here who have built a beautiful BTCC car which, on paper, looks to be a notable step forward from our previous car.

“We have great support from some fantastic partners and we have reintroduced an truly iconic brand back into top level British motorsport – all this and it’s only 11 January!

"So, we have lots of time to develop this car and give ourselves the best possible chance at starting the 2018 season where we finished 2017.

"This is the biggest and most important season of my 27-year career and I cannot describe to you how excited, motivated and determined I am!"