The Frenchman is one of multiple big off-season appointments at the Arundel-based Supercars team, following his departure from Dick Johnson Racing.
Mirko De Rosa has also joined PremiAir, reuniting with Tim Slade after their years together at the Blanchard Racing Team, meaning Romy Mayer moves across to Race Engineer duties on James Golding’s Chevrolet Camaro.
“There has been quite a lot of changes to our line-up of personnel across the Christmas break,” noted Robertson.
“We have changed personnel on cars, there have been changes to the engineering group, and we have Ludo Lacroix on board now as has been widely reported.
“As part of that, there has been a large emphasis put on car preparation, even more than we have had previously.
“Ludo is a great believer in the performance of the car being gained in the workshop and the way we prepare; so when we get to the track, we have a good base to move forward from.
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“The changes that have been made in that approach has elevated the way everyone operates within the team.
“We have raised the bar in preparation, and everyone has lifted their game to meet that bar.”
Lacroix was recently named as Competition Director, the same title which he held at DJR all the way back to his arrival at what was DJR Team Penske.
While the nature of Gen3 is such that he will not be able to develop new parts, his impact is not just being felt on the machinery either.
“Another thing that Ludo has brought is that he is really great at training people,” added Robertson.
“From mechanics through to the guys that run the team and the guys in the engineering group, he is exceptionally good at showing people not only where the bar should be, but how to get there.
“With having a lot of new people in the team that has been exceptionally good for them, and even for those that have been here for a long time, it has been really great for them to really have that keen insight into how Ludo works.
“We know how the team needs to operate and what we need to do to go forward into 2024 competitively, and that is a great place to start from ahead of the new season.”
The team has also invested further in data tools to try and find the edge in such a tightly technically controlled ruleset.
“Having a very strong engineering group as we now have is so important in Supercars, as in essence, everyone has the same toys to play with,” explained Robertson.
“So, we have to be so critical of how we prepare the cars and how we engineer them, and that once again all starts back at the workshop.
“Because of that, we have made large investments in the tools we are using, and when I say tools, I mean analysis software.
“This allows us to compute how the car operates on the track while away from the track, so we know when we are making changes on-track what the car is going to do, how we want to achieve it, and what the end result should be.
“This is so critically important because we do not have time to just pound around and around and around the track to figure out what is going on.
“We do not have the time at events, and we only get three test days a year, which is why test days are so critical.
“This investment in equipment is another core part of our strategy for 2024, and feeds into our confidence that we will be making marked steps forward this season.”
Practice for the Thrifty Bathurst 500 starts on Friday, although a special ‘SC Procedure Check Session’ will be held first at 10:00 local time/AEDT.
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