SEAT name new race team manager.

After four years working in Italy, Malcolm Swetnam will return to the BTCC in 2005 following the announcement that he will become the new full time race team manager for SEAT Sport UK.

Swetnam held a similar post at West Surrey Racing, managing the running of the Ford team between 1996-1998 and then Honda between 1999-2000, helping WSR to win the last two BTCC races he was involved in - the final two rounds of the Super Touring era at Silverstone.

Since then, Swetnam has been based in Maranello, working as the co-ordinator of the European Ferrari 360 Challenge while also holding the position of race team manager of the Ferrari customer LMES team, Barron Connor Racing.

In his new role, Swetnam will work closely with joint team principals Grant Clearwater and Ian Fisher to oversee the smooth running of the team - which is one of the favourites for the 2005 BTCC title.

"It's great to be back in the British Touring Car Championship with such an exciting and motivated team," Swetnam said. "There is a huge amount of potential at SEAT Sport UK and our primary objective in 2005 is to challenge for the manufacturers' title, although we'll obviously be challenging for the drivers' and teams' titles as well.

"SEAT Sport UK is a new team, but it has a lot of experienced and talented people all aiming for the same goals and realistically I think anything is possible."

SEAT have also announced that vastly experienced Le Mans race-winning engineer Eddie Hinckley will continue in his role as Jason Plato's race engineer, while Piers Phillips will be James Pickford's race engineer, having worked as Race Engineer in the SEAT Cupra Championship last season. Luke Hines's race engineer is yet to be announced.