British single seater team Carlin had been working towards a 2018 British Touring Car Championship entry.
Attempts to move into the tin top formula have so far fallen through, but a Carlin BTCC squad could still be a possibility in the future.
Tom Chilton, whose father Grahame backs the team, told Autosport that Carlin had looked at an Alfa Romeo backed operation.
“I was trying to actually get budget from Alfa Romeo to do a proper car and a proper team, and I tried very hard,” he said.
“For the future, there’s always that option – and when I say the future I’m talking about when the rules change again, we’ll be thinking. It’s that distance down the road again.
“But it’s very much up in the air; Carlin at the moment is the busiest race team in Europe, they run more cars than anyone I think at the highest level, and now obviously in America with IndyCar and Indy Lights.
“They’re flat out everywhere, and it makes sense as well with some of the cars they run on the TOCA package – why not run a touring car team too?
“But at the moment we couldn’t make it work because we couldn’t get enough funding from a manufacturer.”
Carlin runs teams in various national and international championships, including the British Formula 4, which is on the BTCC support package. The squad is the most successful team in this generation of the British F4 championship, helping four drivers to the title in the past four years.
The team is yet to announce any drivers for its 2018 F4 entry
Alfa Romeo will be a part of the 2018 BTCC grid, with HMS Racing running a Giulietta as a dealer team entry.
