West Surrey Racing boss Dick Bennetts says his team has spent the early winter collecting “hours and hours” of data on the drag characteristics of their rivals’ cars as they bid to become title winners in the BTCC again.

Bennetts’ outfit will return with their three BMW 125i M-Sport machines in 2016, and the New Zealander says the driver line-up is already taking shape, as well as the work to improve their car.

Although not in a position to name names yet, Bennetts said one driver had signed a deal, a second has verbally agreed a deal while a third is suffering from budget problems and may miss out.

The team’s title tilt never gained true momentum in 2015, something which Bennetts put down in part to rule changes, but also the need to improve the 1 Series.

“The boost reduction off the start hurt us, and moving the ballast box hurt us. But when we weren’t carrying the weight, we weren’t quick enough,” said Bennetts to TouringCarTimes.

“We have spent quite a bit on research and development on our cars including engine development, aero work and chassis work to make us more competitive.

“We are well underway for 2016. We have been helping TOCA and RML with the rear-wheel drive kit and we are 90 per cent there with that, to make it ready for production.

“We are hoping to get the RML kit car out in December for two or three days’ running and the data from one car will be put on the other two. We will run the 2015 and 2016 cars back-to-back with the same driver in it.”

Bennetts said he accepted the 1 Series had never been the fastest car on the grid in a straight line due to its shape. And with that in mind, the team’s winter programme has involved a painstaking collection of CD information on their rivals’ cars, looking at speeds in comparison to levels of drag to see how their own car compares.

Bennetts said the tests had shown some interesting results, including that Honda Yuasa Racing’s Civic Type-R actually had more drag than its predecessor.

The former Rotek Racing Audi S3 was one of the most efficient cars, Bennetts added, while the Ford was one of the fastest in a straight line despite not being the most aerodynamic.

“We have gone through every car on the grid,” said Bennetts.

Also changing in 2016 season will be the race two format, with a return to the grid being set by the finishing order of the first race, rather than by drivers’ fastest laps.

Giving a team boss’s perspective on the changes, Bennetts said: “There are always pluses and minuses and it depends which side of the fence you sit on. The system last year started off well but at one event Jason [Plato] started from the pitlane. If everyone chose to do it, then it would make a mockery of it and we were guilty of it too.

“Often race one became boring as people beyond the first five were thinking about the grid for race two. Going back to what we had in 2014, the [increased] ballast in the top three cars should penalise them.

“These 2.0L turbo engines are very torquey and with 45kg it was not hurting much – but with 75kg it definitely does.”