CEO and Founder Dave Player talks about what stands Team BRIT apart from the rest of the motorsport world.
There is no other race team in the world like Team BRIT and that is something we are enormously proud about.
It is fantastic to see other teams being created, with a similar objective, as it is important that our work inspires others to recognize that people with injuries and disabilities can make excellent racing drivers. Our ultimate goal is to normalize disability, to remove the barriers being faced by disabled people, and the more projects underway that support this aim, the better.
What no one else has yet managed to achieve – but BMW are working on this for Alex Zanardi – is the amazing technology behind our race hand controls.
Zanardi raced with a combination of manual braking and hand controls, but will soon hopefully enjoy the benefits of the fly-by-wire braking that we have developed together with MME Motorsport.
Frederic Sausset uses the pedals on his race car by having extension rods fitted, like prosthetic legs.
And young Billy Monger is practicing using his prosthetic leg to drive, as we saw him do in the display he put on at the Autosport International Show. We helped Billy get his race licence back 11 weeks after he was injured and hope we were influential in showing Billy what can still be achieved as a disabled driver.
Jaguar and Invictus Games have launched Invictus Racing with the new Jaguar GT car, to compete in the British GT. These cars require no hand control technology as all the drivers can drive a car normally.
What stands us apart from all other teams that work with disabled drivers is we are the only team in the world that can field a team of drivers with a wide range of injuries and disabilities, many of which would not be able to race unless this technology existed. We welcome drivers with a range of disabilities and will do our utmost to prove that almost anyone can drive. We are even working on a project to get a triple and a quadruple amputee racing – we love a challenge and we love seeing the satisfaction in getting someone behind the wheel who never thought it would be possible.
We have an amazing year ahead of us with around 10 rookies racing in our two Fun Cup cars and 4 of our most experience drivers competing in GT4 races. We hope to run a unique competition to find our next rookie drivers and we’re thrilled to be working with even more sponsors.
We are exploring other endurance race series as we are keen to ensure our drivers get a much track time as possible so they develop their skills quicker.
What a year it’s going to be….we can’t wait to get started.
