HMS Racing has taken the wraps off its new Alfa Romeo Giulietta British Touring Car Championship challenger at Autosport International.

The car will be driven by Rob Austin, who will remain with the team for a third year in a row after two seasons in Handy Motorsport's Toyota Avenis.

Handy, which announced last August that it would return the Alfa Romeo brand to the BTCC through a dealer team arrangement, rebranded to HMS Racing over the winter.

Austin said: "We are so proud to finally be unveiling the new Alfa, 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 unique BTCC car and both Willie Poole Motorsport Services and ABS Motorsport have really gone above and beyond, on the bodyshell and bodywork respectively, to overcome the challenges involved in such a unique design and still meet their deadlines."

Austin finished 11th in the standings last year and won the final round of the championship at Brands Hatch.

Team boss Simon Belcher, a former competitor in the series, said the team was looking forward to an intensive test programme to get the most from the front-wheel drive machine.

"It's very emotional to see the response to the Alfa Romeo we have designed and built ourselves from the ground up," said Belcher.

"I did a very hard thing in stepping out of the driving seat myself in the BTCC to spend more time overseeing the team's progress and then developing such a stunning car.

"Our engineer Matt Taylor and the rest of the team have done an incredible job and I am extremely proud of what we have achieved.

"However, a beautiful car is only part of the journey - now we need to make it win!"