Lack of testing hampers progress for Alain Menu

Alain Menu says the limitation on testing during the BTCC season has been a major factor in his battle for results on his return to the championship in 2014.

The 1997 and 2000 champion’s best finish so far has been fifth in the final race at Brands Hatch, and his luck was summed up at Croft by his second race clash with Jason Plato, which eliminated him from sixth place.

The Team BMR pilot was left considering a case of what might have been, after battling from the back to come home eighth in the final race.

Speaking to TouringCarTimes, Menu said: “It has not been my year so far. Everything was going well [at Croft], apart from qualifying, where we hoped for a bit better. But we were going in the right direction with setup.

“It’s not a problem of myself getting to grips with the car; as a team we are new, and we need more test days to develop the car.

“But with the rules as they are, with only four test days during the season, it is very hard to catch up with teams who have been doing NGTC for three years now. They know exactly what they are doing.

“The progress will really be made over the winter, I fear. That in itself is disappointing. We’re not quite there yet.

“Most of the problems we had was that everything was ready quite late. We didn’t have enough time. Maybe if we could have been out in January it would have been slightly different. But that’s how it is.”