Earlier in July, we had the chance to sit down with Proton R3 team principal Gary Lee, who revealed that the homegrown motorsports division is among the most successful racing team within the Geely empire, and one with the richest motorsports heritage.
Well, over the past weekend at the 2019 World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) grand finale at the Sepang International Circuit, we met with Geely Group Motorsport boss Alexander Murdzevski to find out what’s next for Proton R3.
According to Alex, Geely fully respects the history and heritage of every car brand that it’s involved with, and the sentiment trickles over to the motorsports family as well. In fact, after acquiring Volvo, Geely immediately created Geely Motorsport to make sure existing talents within the Polestar Cyan Racing team don’t go to waste.
And in the best interest of the growing family, Geely gave its new acquisitions free reign to do things their way, instead of “acting like a big brother” that gives directives. “Every time we come down to Malaysia, we will sit together with our family here which are Gary and the Proton R3 team, and we always listen to their plans and what they can do better for the Proton brand,” Alex explained.
“In Geely, we have a lot of positive commercial records involving motorsports, and we in turn get a lot of support with what we’re doing now. So I think the spirit and interest are there. We don’t act like a big brother and tell people what to do. You make your own choices, and if we have a suitable car in the next two to three years and it’s deemed suitable for Proton to race in the Touring Car, for sure we will share it with Proton R3,” he added.
“I think what’s unique with Proton R3 is that it’s a team with a very long history in motorsports racing. If you think about it, you have to feel proud because there aren’t many racing teams in the world that can continue to operate under the main [Proton] brand for such a long time. Proton R3 also perform consistently well. Gary and his team are good, nice people. I’m happy to have him as part of a family,” Alex added.
When asked if there’s a chance for Proton Motorsport to make a return to the world racing stage, especially with rallying, Alex said: “Motorsports is, 90% of the time, being at the right place at the right time. When a new championship begins and you have a new product that’s suitable, you can use it as a long-term R&D investment. So it’s all about timing when talking about racing programmes.”
Meanwhile, for those who are unfamiliar with Lynk & Co, it’s actually Geely’s luxury car brand, much like what Lexus and Infiniti are to Toyota and Nissan. Cyan Racing, on the other hand, is Volvo Polestar’s technical partner and the two entities have been in motorsports for many years.
Lynk & Co Cyan Racing’s weapon of choice for the 2019 WTCR season is the 03 sedan, which only made its debut in September 2018. It’s based on the hotter 03+ variant, which is powered by a 2.0 litre Drive E engine making 254 hp and 350 Nm of torque. That’s the same output as a T5-powered Volvo, and the 03 is based on Volvo’s Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) platform.
Apparently, Alex said the 03+ race cars still use the factory frame and engine, and much of the internal components are exactly identical to the production car. The only thing that’s different is the fitment of a larger turbocharger, which bumps output to 350 hp and 450 Nm of torque. The race car was finished in a very short period of time, and the first test session was done by December 2018.
Fast forward to 10 rounds and 30 races later, Lynk & Co Cyan Racing won the 2019 WTCR team title, pulling ahead of runner-up BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse by 14 points. In third place was Münnich Motorsport Honda, which trailed behind by 52 points. This means Lynk & Co Cyan Racing became the first ever world title holder for a China brand, and achieved so within the first year of racing. So, what would you like Proton R3 to do next?
This piece has been translated from the original story written by our BM counterpart.
GALLERY: Lynk & Co 03+ in Malaysia
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Thanks to China and Geely, even Proton Motorsports also now improving
We are so lucky we got Gary and Li Chunrong to guide the Proton workers to do well in life
Proton racing success have long predated China, Geely, Dr Li. They have no relations at all and Geely is well aware of that. That’s why Geely Motorsports allowed R3 to continue independently.
Pity that Proton still need to rely on China’s help despite it’s 30 years of automotive experience. This shows that Proton game over workers are too lembab and lazy before China takeover
I don’t understand. Gary is a Malaysian, how does he relate to China and Li Chunrong has no part in Proton Motorsport successful history.
R3 has been doing well since before Geely.
Proton in much better hands under new CEO.
I’ve seen your comments from 2015… they were so racist!!
We should bring in more Mainland people into Malaysi because now it is proven that they really can make a turnaround of a failing company
It is amazing how we laugh at foreigners and call them pendatang but now, we crawl to them for help. I must say, there people are so nice to help our dis-organised companies
R3 has never been a failing company what sh*t are you talking about?
We already have many china doll since way back then.
Gary Lee works hard. He does not expect bntuan kerajaan all the time.
This is why Proton Motorsports is doing very well.
Gary Lee also depends on the Uitm, Mara, abang-abang engineers which is why Proton racing is successful. Go over to Honda Malaysia Racing Team, even with Jap support and help, they still failed badly. Our Uitm, Mara, abang-abangs have proven their capabilities.
Another senseless comment. Gary and the rest of R3 team works hard, so as many Proton staff. They are private sector workers so they are not expectant of any bantuan kerajaan as you insinuate here. Their successes is because all of Proton efforts and hardwork, every one of them.
Whats next for proton?
1. TCR car
2. More support for the Iriz R5, and follow up car to the Iriz R5 (can we do a X50 R5 rally version? would it be allowed?)
3. Low cost homologated rally R2 car
4. A road car to rival the yaris GR
5. 1 make junior touring car race series. Can use Saga.
6. Return to Super GT with GT300 Mother Chassis. It would be awesome if we can see a saga silhouette racing in super GT
Don’t worry, the Chinese will plan well for us. Now under their guidance and leadership, you can rest assured Proton is going to to very well.
I hope we open more Chinese schools in Malaysia to cater to the influx of China people coming into Malaysia
you might as well say let China take over Malaysia lol
That is a stupid suggestion. China educators will laugh at our still traditional rote learning syllabus in Chinese stream schools while they have moved on to innovating in classrooms.
What they could aim next is R3-built IRIZ & Saga customer racecars for local track racing series such as S1K, AFOS, MMR, etc. They have shown their capabilities and pedigree in winning, so it is time to monetize that.
Yeah, as soon as WE approve the budget. Nothing moves unless R3 orbits around the Geely sphere. Otherwise R3 is on their own pretty much
if anybody wondering proton probally gonna rebadge geely model till their finalcially stabil enough to built their own platform
You see how much different Geely is compared to so many Western or Japanese mergers which seeks to impose their big brother PoV and not respecting the other parties? This disrespect always ends in failures just the recent de-merger and sale of UD Trucks from Volvo Group. The same, you see how much confidence Geely has into Proton and how much respect these Western professionals have on Proton’s engineering capabilities and racing pedigree. Only blind fools, disingenuous people with ulterior motives, trolls, and haters cannot see what is so obvious in front even if it hits them square on.
Western companies SOP is to cut cut cut, the accountant will run the company, with zero care given, just to try to balance the books.
Look what GM & Ford did when they buy over.
Don’t forget too to mention that Proton has taken RM20 bil in bailout, money that belongs to the tax payer. Proton should return this money first before we can talk big about how Proton is doing well now
and dont forget to mention P1 has paid back 24.1 billion in tax since 1985.
And Proton returned back 3X in revenue and taxes upon profits. So what, do we demand your company give back the RM20billion you took from the rakyat giving overpriced cars for 50 years? Yes Im talking about your Toyota.
Typical abang abang mentality. Mellor and China do all the work, then the jaguh kampung claim glamour and fame
Just like Proton, only after Li Chunrong took over, the company was losing billions per year.
Now Proton doing well, jaguh kampung claim glamour and syiok sendiri with the fame.
Typical chauvinist ahpek mentality, cannot tengok orang lain senang.
Abang2 built world class chassis- deal with it. How do we know? Mellors said so, when they could’ve gone with any euro platforms.
Yes Mellors put in their hard work into building a race machine based on a chassis that abang2 poured in hundreds of hours in development- head work as you put it.
LCR is not bodoh sombong like you, he / Geely Motorsports just gave greenlight for abang2 to move forward.
Typical of UEC mentality that have poor understanding of English and typical lazy attitude to read the article. If you did, you would come to realize the chassis developed by Proton is a great factor in a race winning car.
The problem with you is you don’t bother to read. I guess even if you weren’t paid to read you should have shown some effort or otherwise you won’t sound so foolish. Look here R3 is all Malaysian crew and mostly are Malay staffers. You can take your UEC envy and shoved it up yr rear.
I think more china pepo should come to Malaysians to teach proton a thing or two, because it’s proven a sustainable idea and it also means the downfall of proton cronies, syabas!
i think China should take over MY, then raise Ringgit RM1=USD1.5
set all the car’s price reduced 300%, all BMW/MERC car must not be priced over max RM120k
Proton should enter WTCR using Suprima S as the base model with Campro 1.6 engine.
Touring Car racing has far more potential for Proton to develop its products for road use and compete directly against the might of Honda, Hyundai, SEAT, Peugeot, and Renault on both race tracks and sales.
WIN ON SUNDAY, SELL ON MONDAY.
I’m about to book Saga as my daily car cuz the NVH level is so good compare to the Myvi 1.5av belongs to my father where the NVH is terrible especially during rain. But after watched this news, I’m cancelled my booking intention and just wait for this and i dont care if it would take years(since I have other car also) Really looking forward for new saga R3 with performance upgrade, Getrag manual transmission, but noise insulation still be installed just like normal saga. I also hope that this saga R3 price wouldn’t be too much different than a normal saga. Not like tht rm100k satria neo lotus racing bcz most of the youngster still have the typical average salary. Please understand that. No need tht carbon fibre stuffs, pricey suspension, etc in order to cut the price. All we wanted is an engine with reasonable high hp compare to other car. Im expecting atleast 150-180hp for saga. If cant be achieve with a 1.3 campro then put the 1.6 version. The saga R3 sepang had 190hp right? Detuned it to 150-160ish to make it realible. But if R3 could find a way to achieve even higher hp without compromising the reliability, we would happily to enjoy that(perhaps new developed engine?). And to those who thanks to geely bcz help to improve proton R3, here’s the thing. R3 is doing really well even with limited resources and money. They are so much underrated and didnt get any much support from citizen. People who already build an engine will know what kind of price they will need to pay, even kancil owner need to spend rm20-22k on their 660T engine in order to achieve 200ish hp. And even with R3 limited money, they still can compete in worldwide championship. Imagine if they had so much money, more possibilities will exist.