Shane van Gisbergen’s car feels like “it’s got a mind of its own,” according to Triple Eight Race Engineering Team Manager Mark Dutton.
Van Gisbergen was 10th-fastest in Practice 2 at the Vailo Adelaide 500 but did not go back on-track when the rest went for their final runs, instead heading in the direction of the Triple Eight transporter.
Dutton confirmed that there was a steering rack problem for the championship contender’s #97 Red Bull Ampol Camaro when he spoke on television post-session.
“We did some good learning anyway [but] the rack wasn’t right,” he said.
“They pushed through, but then when you’re trying to put the greens [new tyres] on, as much as you want to see it, you can’t ask them to go 10 tenths on the green run.
“You can do the used tyre run, you can learn, learn, learn, but when it’s a hundred percent lap, the car needs to be better than it was.”
Elaborating on the drama, Dutton explained, “To put it really simply, it feels sometimes like it’s got a mind of its own, so it’ll move under braking, it’ll track…
“The point is, Shane and all drivers need to be in control. When they’re flat-out and they’re loose and they’re doing all this crazy stuff, to the road car layperson, you sometimes could be excused for thinking that they’re out of control, but they’re never out of control; they’re in control.
“So, the rack gives them the feeling of being out of control, not controlling the car totally, hence why he’s like, ‘I can’t do 10 tenths because I don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s not doing everything I want, it’s doing a few things on its own merit.’”
It is van Gisbergen who has generally reported the worst feedback regarding steering of Gen3 race cars, and even switched chassis mid-season as Triple Eight chased an apparent issue with his original Camaro.
On whether the three-time champion simply has more sensitivity to his car, Dutton remarked, “Yeah, definitely, he has amazing feeling; you could argue the best feeling up and down pit lane.
“I think the track record and the trophies probably attest to that, so that comes with the downside that sometimes, when you’re feeling everything at ultra-high sensitivity, if it’s not quite right, it’s not fun to drive and not safe to drive in his opinion.
“The car’s not about to steer into a wall and crash, it’s not to that extent, but it gives that feeling and that’s a very unnerving feeling.”
Both Triple Eight cars had issues in Practice 2, with Broc Feeney missing the bulk of the session due to an engine problem.
On that, Dutton reported, “We got a little bit hot at the ride day, didn’t see any issues after; obviously did some inspections and that.
“Then this morning, a little bit too close to the session, we saw that it might not last, but it was too close to the session to change it, so we could have done a better job with that.
“So it didn’t last as long as we wanted. We’d already pre-empted and the guys had everything ready to change after the session because thankfully we’ve got a big gap to qualifying.”
Qualifying for Race 27, which sets the latter 15 positions on the grid and determined the start order of tomorrow’s Top 10 Shootout, takes place this evening at 17:35 local time/18:05 AEDT.
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