Welch Motorsport considering car change for 2016

Dan Welch is assessing his options ahead of 2016, with the Welch Motorsport driver stating there are “plans afoot in every direction” for the upcoming year.

The team struggled in 2015 with the Proton Gen-2, and Welch admitted he was glad to see the back of a “trying” couple of seasons.

“The last two years have been trying, should I say,” Welch told TouringCarTimes at the Autosport International Show. “By the time we finished last year, the engine project we undertook was actually going really well, unfortunately it wasn’t quick enough and if you battle around being 40hp away from where you should be there’s not much you can do. We’ve got plans afoot in every direction, it’s a case of picking and choosing the best way to go forward.”

TouringCarTimes reported last year that the team were planning to switch to a Hyundai i30 for 2016, but Welch remained tight lipped on any plans to change machinery.

“At the end of last year we had a choice of two manufacturers to go with,” explained Welch. “As with everybody in this game, it’s an expensive game to be in and picking the right path to actually go forwards, yes, you can change cars but you end up spending money to not go forwards in anyway. The name of the game is you put a car on the grid you work on the handling, the engineering side, if you’ve got a car that performs it doesn’t actually matter what it looks like and unless you can actually get a manufacturer involved with you, what’s the point? That’s the sticking point.

“We’re not sure yet [if the Proton will return], we started a new car build towards the end of 2015 which is still under way but at a snail’s pace. It was a hard blow for us to lose our second licence, as a small team it makes it very tricky and we’ve had an enduring two years, at the minute we’re just getting over licking our wounds and trying to find a fresh way forward.”