The was the 44th British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season and marked the beginning of a new era of lower-cost rules and regulations for the series.
2001 saw a complete overhaul of the BTCC, aimed at reducing the cost of competition and making the series more appealing to the fans.
The spectacular but expensive
Supertouring car regulations were finally ditched at the end of 2000. 2001 saw the field divided into two classes: BTC-T and BTC-P. The latter was a simple renaming of 2000's "Class B" Super Poduction specification cars, whereas BTC-T (T for Touring) was a completely new set of rules designed to produce closer racing and cheaper cars to build.
- Alan Gow stepped down as the series boss, replaced by Richard West.
- BF Goodrich replaced Michelin as the control tyre for the series.
- Honda and Ford left the series, although Peugeot returned as a works entry after withdrawing at the end of the 1998 season.
- More conventional qualifying sessions returned, replacing the one-lap showdown system of previous years
- Initially a three-race format was proposed for BTCC race-day: BTC-P and BTC-T to have one 'sprint' race each before the two classes combined for a longer 'feature' race in which the Touring class cars would be required to make a pit-stop. However, after the first race meeting it was decided that the two classes should combine for the sprint race as well.
