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Will Davison remains upbeat on Erebus Motorsport’s prospects amid a tumultuous season for the privately run Mercedes-AMG operation.
As previously reported, technical director Wes McDougall elected to part ways with the team prior to the Coates Hire Ipswich Super Sprint after a period of medical leave.
The change is an unexpected additional shake-up to what had already been a period of transition for the squad.
An internal restructure had earlier seen a trimming of staffing levels and the addition of consultant Campbell Little, who along with existing Erebus manager Barry Ryan has spearheaded the new direction.
Former data engineer Richard Harris stepped up to race engineer Ash Walsh following McDougall’s departure, while Luke Mason continues his engineering partnership with Davison.
“There are certainly quite a few changes going on at the moment and with that provides challenges,” Davison told Speedcafe.com following the weekend at Ipswich.
“I think it is an important turning point for the team and there is a pretty good morale with the core group of people we have got.
“For sure short term there are challenges when people leave and shift roles. It is going to be an interesting few months to see how it all settles in.
“I’m happy with how it is working and we probably need to fine tune our structures but all in all I think it is great.
“We have got a great bunch of enthusiastic guys and there is pressure on us all but they are responding well.
“I have worked in a lot of teams and we are probably missing a few aspects, but in terms of the people we have got and the attitude we have, it’s brilliant.”
Erebus showed solid pace at Ipswich highlighted by three top 10 finishes from Davison over the weekend.
According to Davison, he and Mason had experimented with a ‘radical’ set-up direction in Friday practice that, although not used for the weekend, showed promising signs for later in the season.
The team has particularly struggled on high grip circuits during recent times, a trend Davison is particularly keen to overcome ahead of Bathurst.
“What we learned on Friday I think is invaluable for some of the tracks where we are weak at like the higher grip, higher load tracks,” added Davison.
“We tried some very different damper configurations.
“For sure we could use it at Bathurst, which is a track like Darwin that has a new surface and high load corners which we haven’t been able to get on top of.
“I have got a good feeling that should see us improve our weakness on that kind of track.”
