Jason Plato: We're "better prepared than ever"

MG KX Momentum Racing’s Jason Plato believes his team are "better prepared than ever" heading into the 2014 Championship.

Plato collected more pole positions and victories than any other driver in 2013, but ended the campaign in third spot after a string of disappointing non-finishes.

“I’ve got mixed feelings on last year,” he said. “It’s another one that got away and we really should have won it. That’s not taking anything away from what Andrew Jordan achieved – he’s an incredibly worthy champion who deserved it and drove brilliantly all year, but we let it get away.

“Three of our five DNFs came when we were leading and would have had guaranteed wins, but I am an eternal optimist so I look back on the good points: the second half of the year we were the pace, we won more races and got more poles than anyone else. Most importantly, we got the car working in the wet as we demonstrated in the final meeting at Brands Hatch.”

The good news for Plato fans is that he predicts 2014 will prove more of a success after confronting his team last season at Snetterton and Knockhill.

“The best thing from my perspective came out of something that was quite negative,” he continued. “At Snetterton and Knockhill I was pretty critical of the team for mistakes that were being made. That’s quite a bold thing to do openly, and I didn’t take the decision to do it lightly. I’m a part of the team – I wasn’t pointing fingers, but as a team we’d gone off the rails a bit. We did a lot of soul-searching, we fell out, we made up, and we came back out at Silverstone a different outfit. And then we blew everyone away. That’s the good bit for me, to give the team a kick and for everyone to raise their game and pick it back up was a really rewarding thing and it’ll make us a better team and stronger going into 2014 because of it.”

Plato believes that modifications to the MG6 model he has used since 2012 will prove decisive when the season recommences.

“This is also the first year where we’re doing some meaningful development over the winter," he said.

The aerodynamic package hasn’t changed since the initial design and we didn’t have time to do any wind tunnel testing as the project came together so late on. Now we’re redesigning the front end, so I think from a preparation perspective we’re better sorted than we ever have been. We know the car is inherently quick.”