Exocet Racing's Rob Austin believes that 2015 will be a good year for him and the team, after a mixed campaign last season.
The 33-year-old will enter his fifth season in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship this year, with his team continuing their partnership with Exocet Fuel Additives and DUO PLC, and is confident of taking big steps forward this season:
"I think 2015 is going to be good for us; we de-stabilised last winter and didn't get anywhere near the steps we needed to go forward that we'd hoped and I don't feel I did my best as a driver last year, but I've restructured the team and we've got fantastic support from our main sponsors which has really given us the stability we need to get to work - as soon as last season finished we've been flat out on the updates that we need, we know where we're going, we're all working in the same direction and we're going to be better prepared for this season than we have been for any season previous and I think these developments to the car are going to give us an extra little bit of pace, and you don't need much in this championship to make a big difference because it's so close.
"Last season wasn't our best, but we were on par with our best as we'd taken a big step forward during 2013, however over the winter unfortunately we didn't make that big step but we did make improvements; we got similar results in a much more competitive grid but we need results, we need to take a big step forward and we're progressing well towards what we want to achieve".
With Austin and the team working extremely hard over the winter on the team's pair of Audi A4's, he admits that the team have not had any time to test the cars during the pre-season:
"We've not been able to do any testing yet due to the work we've been doing and unfortunately the Autosport Show snook up on us this year so we weren't ready to unveil the car here as we had hoped, but having said that it is all progressing very well, and come the end of the month/early February we should be in a position where we're ready to go testing.
We've done all the maths behind it so far and we're ready to test a whole new platform, the car is going to look very different, it'll be a lot different underneath and it's going to be quite a different beast".
Looking ahead to this year's campaign, Austin has set himself clear targets for what he wants to achieve during 2015.
"Your targets are always to win, I haven't really set anything solid. Obviously like everyone on the grid you're aiming to win everything and win the championship, but the realistic expectations for me are that I've got to win more than one race and I've got to win at somewhere else other than Rockingham which I think is highly achievable. I think for me though I want to finish the season knowing that I've given it my all and done my absolute best, and I do believe that if everything comes together and we give it our best we should be in quite a decent position in the championship".
With the season launch just two months away, Austin will be hoping that he and "Sherman" will soon be able to get some track time in preparation for their fifth season in the BTCC.
Written and interviewed by Alan Faulkner
Photo Credit: Alan Faulkner
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