Nicolas Hamilton eyes a full time BTCC drive in 2016

Nicolas Hamilton is relishing his opportunity in the British Touring Car Championship with a guest drive, hoping strong performances may open doors for a full time drive in 2016.

Hamilton will race from Croft onwards with AmD Tuning in an Audi S3, a team which he feels is the best way to kick start his BTCC career.

“I want to change people’s perspective, there’s a lot of people think that being a Hamilton and what we have, whether it’s money or whatever that I’m going to have all of that straight away,” Hamilton told TouringCarTimes. “It was me that knocked on doors for sponsors, bringing the right people on board and the right team around me and management. I’m going to enjoy working with AmD, they’re a really solid group, really nice people and they know a lot about the championship, I think they can teach me a lot.”

Hamilton has previously raced in the Clio Cup for two seasons, finishing 14th overall in his debut year, as well as competing one year in the European Touring Car Championship in 2013, scoring a season-high result of seventh at Monza in a SEAT Leon Supercopa.

“Coming in I haven’t driven for a year and a half, I don’t have a lot of experience,” he continued. “I’ve only done three race seasons and now I’m racing against people who have raced for twenty years and been in this championship for ten years so it’s going to be really difficult and really tough but it’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before.

“I will be able to deal with, but how well is the question so that’s why I have no expectations for my first race, where I end up, where I qualify, it’s just about developing myself. It’s a development program, and that’s why we’re using this guest license to develop myself as a driver and to make myself as strong as possible.”

Looking forward, the AmD driver refused to rule out a full time drive in 2016, but said that it will depend on how the second half of the season goes for him.

“It’s a nice goal to do a full season in 2016. I see this year as a foot in the door in to the BTCC in the best way possible for me as a driver and to develop me as much as I can. If we can finish off the year with a good opportunity to do something in 2016 then that’s definitely something I’ll look in to.”

With half a season between now and his race debut, Hamilton, who will become the BTCC’s first disabled racing driver, is planning a small number of test sessions to get his eye back in before returning to the track competitively.

“We don’t have many test days booked, which is down to funding and money,” he said. “At the moment I think it’s about four days, which we’ll look to put in the best timing possible so that I’m not in the car for one day followed by a three month break. If I can do four days in the week before Croft then that will be fantastic, so I can get at home in the car. We haven’t decided when that’ll be, at the moment it’s just about sorting out the modifications in the car.”