Erebus Motorsport CEO Ryan Maddison says that taking its AMG engine program completely in-house is a vital move as the team prepares for its second V8 Supercars season.
The ambitious customer Mercedes V8 Supercars effort was rushed onto the track at the beginning of the year and suffered significant teething problems with its engine package.
Initially designed and developed by AMG’s HWA racing division in Germany, Erebus found significant improvements mid-season when it began adding to the program from the ex-Stone Brothers Racing engine shop in Queensland.
Erebus will now take full responsibility for its operations next season, where expectations for success will be greatly improved.
“It is very much on side with what the expectations of the team are as far as being more self sufficient,” Maddison told Speedcafe.com of the changes to the V8 Supercar effort.
“This year in considering how quickly we had to get the program together and the IP that has sat within certain aspects of our program, we needed to keep returning the engines.
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“That doesn’t work particularly with the way the calendar is stacked in the first five to seven events next year.
“Even though we will be over-resourced with a two-car program as opposed to a three-car program, we just can’t afford to risk elements like customs holding onto an engine for 24 or 72 hours.
“Whatever is inhibiting our performance clearly needs to be removed,” he added.
“We saw at Sandown the incoming CEO Tobias (Moers) made comments about performance concerns. We completely agree; we obviously want performance as well.”
Moers strong criticism of Erebus came on the eve of September’s Sandown 500 and made reference to the fact that the team’s “branding agreement” runs out at the end of 2014.
Erebus has made a major investment by recruiting Will Davison from Ford Performance Racing to join Lee Holdsworth in its squad ahead of what looms as a vital year.
Ironically, Sandown proved Erebus’ best performance of its inaugural season. A fourth place finish for Holdsworth and co-driver Craig Baird was one of just seven top 10 finishes from the 36 race schedule.
Drivers Holdsworth, Tim Slade and Maro Engel finished 20th, 22nd and 28th in the final points standings respectively.
Maddison and Klimenko flew to Germany on Wednesday to finalise the restructured relationship, as well as discuss the future of its GT program and attend an AMG Customer Sports prize giving, where its Bathurst 12 Hour win will be recognised.
“We use a number of methods including video conferencing and one-on-one phone calls, which happen multiple times a week, but the real business is done face-to-face and breaking bread,” said Maddison of the latest trip.
