Franz Engstler has admitted that he is not expecting to be able to race a brand new Volkswagen Golf in the TCR International Series until the end of the year, with Volkswagen not having produced a car for the team yet.
Liqui Moly Team Engstler first revealed their plans to use a Golf in the new TCR Series back in November 2014, but when this was delayed the team planned to use a trio of SEAT León cars. This was changed to Audi TT Cup cars at the last moment, when the team’s primary sponsor Liqui Moly stated a preference for using a German brand.
Engstler received dispensation to run two Audi TT Cup Cars in the TCR Series at the last minute, and the German praised the car’s development in such a short time period, given the lack of pre-season testing.
“We are staying in contact with Volkswagen to run the Golf Mk VII in the future,” said Engstler to TouringCars.Net. “But now I am happy to get the chance to run an Audi and use the TT in this championship. Audi and Volkswagen have done a great job to make the Audi competitive.
“This car is not produced for the TCR championship – this car is only produced for a one-make series. That means we went to Malaysia without any testing, so it’s a really great job from Audi to make this car competitive after the second race meeting – especially as we are in the third race meeting and we are just seven tenths off pole position.
Team owner Engstler revealed that he is still waiting for a date from Volkswagen, and would not be drawn on when that might be, insisting that it is important to fully test the new car before it makes its first appearance.
“We will see how fast we can engineer and build the Volkswagen. It depends on Volkswagen and when we can get the body shell and especially the body kit. I think by the end of the championship season the Volkswagen will be ready, but first we have to do some tests. We can’t go into an international championship, with the levels so high and so professional, without testing.
“First we have to do some testing and then we will see how competitive we are. We are preparing everything for next year. After that we can deliver some cars to the national championships, but first we have to do our work with the test car and prepare.
“I think in the future Volkswagen will be able to build more cars, but at the moment we have to focus only on the test car and how quickly we can make it competitive. It is our main target and the first big step and then we can see how quick we can build the car and sell it to other teams.”