Jason Plato: “I’m just a development test driver at the moment”

Jason Plato qualified 18th at the second meeting for his new Team BMR Subaru Levorg at Donington Park, but says he’s unconcerned about his grid position as the goal for the weekend is simply to continue developing the car.

Plato will start the opening race tomorrow as the last of the four Levorgs on the grid, with team-mates Colin Turkington, Warren Scott and James Cole setting the 11th, 16th and 17th best times respectively.

The double champion believes he could have been further up the grid had he switched to slicks sooner, but of far more importance was gathering data to pore over with his engineer Carl Faux.

The four Levorgs only took the track for the first time at Brands Hatch two weeks ago, after a mammoth effort to get them ready over the winter break.

“Unusually, my mind is not in trying to do the ultimate laptime, it’s in developing the car,” said Plato to TouringCarTimes.

“I should have called it earlier to put slicks on, but we’re not in that zone at the minute, challenging for top six on the grid. We’re all trying different setups and my car is particularly hard to drive in the wet – lots of snappy oversteer.

“But we’ve got to go through the process and the plan. What we can’t afford to do is spear off in different directions to find a tenth, that won’t achieve anything.

“Let’s not look for ultimate pace because there is no point. Ninth or tenth, who gives a shit? That’s not going to win us points.”

Plato said the car hadn’t been changed since Brands Hatch, so the rain in qualifying had hindered rather than helped the ongoing development of the car.

“It harms it. We’re trying to keep on plan and it just gets in the way,” he said.

“We’ve not bolted on any [improvements], we’re just looking at data so Carlos [Carl Faux] can try and understand the car. Our toolbox of settings is empty at the moment, and we just need to build up that knowledge.

“We’re just testing, we’re not racing. It’s hard to be in that mindset but you’ve got to do it; I’m in a completely different mindset to the one I’ll be in at Oulton Park. When you’re pushing for the last tenth, you’re not listening to the car.

“I’m a development test driver at the moment. It’s one of the reasons I’m so jovial!”