George Commins has reflected positively on his first season at Erebus Motorsport engineering Brodie Kostecki.
A respected figure who spent a year working for the Williams Formula 1 team as a vehicle dynamics engineer, Commins switched from Kelly Racing to Erebus ahead of the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship.
The Barry Ryan-led outfit defied all expectations to have both Kostecki and Will Brown finish inside the top 10 of the championship, collectively picking up six podiums including a race win along the way.
“It’s a great atmosphere at Erebus, it’s a very young and enthusiastic team,” said Commins.
“It reminds me of some of the teams I worked with earlier in my career, it’s been a lot of fun.
“It’s very much a work hard, play hard sort of environment which is a great thing to have within race teams.”
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Commins noted fresh ideas in the brains trust, plus the presence of two rookie drivers, made for a clean sheet that proved beneficial.
“We ran the cars very differently to how Erebus cars have been run in the past, particularly in terms of the set-up philosophy and some of the ideas behind the car,” he said.
“I think between that and the drivers being close to maximising everything they’ve got, every time they get in the car, it’s made a massive difference.
“As rookies, they don’t have any ideas about what things should be like, they are just focused on getting in the car and giving it their all so we can make the changes we need to move forward.”
Working with Kostecki proved a particularly enjoyable experience: “Brodie and I have a lot of trust and respect in what each other says.
“At the start of the year we were feeling each other out to see what things we would both respond to and what we needed from each other.
“From Townsville onwards we had a good balance of him pushing the set-up direction, while I pushed him on his driving and what he needs to do to improve.
“It’s probably one of the strongest driver/engineer relationships I’ve had in a long time.”
Having admittedly “underachieved a little bit” following a stunning Sandown podium in March, Commins has high hopes after finishing the 2021 season on a high as Kostecki and David Russell combined for a Bathurst 1000 podium.
“I think pace-wise, we definitely need to pick up where we left off from Sydney and Bathurst,” he continued.
“I think they need to be regularly in the top five in terms of pace in all sessions, particularly qualifying.”
Both Kostecki and Brown will return at Erebus in 2022.
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