McLaughlin’s debrief: I have to be better

Scott McLaughlin looks back at another challenging IndyCar weekend in his latest exclusive Hired Gun column

G’day guys,

It’s a tough grind right now.

Our season has really taken a turn for the worse – we’ve had no luck at all, there’s been a couple of errors from the bloke behind the wheel – and it’s turning into a grind.

And the harder I try, the worse things are going – so it’s testing me.

I think expectations were raised so high at the start of the year with our super opening – and it’s been difficult to live up to them.

And that’s on me.

It’s nothing we can’t fix – but we just have to lower expectations, and not put quite so much pressure on ourselves on race weekends.

I’ve been saying it for a while now – this competition is the most brutal in the world in motorsport.

If you’re an inch off… you’re in strife.

And that’s what caught me out yesterday at Belle Isle.

A silly mistake, a brake lock-up, a messy visit down the escape route, an even messier exit into a tyre bundle, and it demolishes our entire day.

That’s how competitive things are right now.

So we lost a lap, went to the back and fought like hell to scrape out a 19^th placed finish.

It’s disappointing and clearly not where we want to be.

It drops us down to tenth in the championship standings – which is a bitter pill to swallow, especially considering we led the thing earlier this year.

So we have to be better in the #3 camp.

I have to be better.

But I’m positive it’ll correct.

I’ll keep my chin up and keep boxing on.

But just our run of luck has been really tough to cop.

Think the Indy GP rain hitting while we had the lead out on slicks.

Then qualifying for the 500 when we rolled the dice and again the elements hurt us.

And like qualifying on Saturday – we were on our fastest lap of the entire weekend and then Grosjean whacks the wall and the red comes out and we lose our lap.

The good news for us – is that we’re back at the track again this weekend.

Road America is great in the fact that I don’t have time to sit and kick the dog (sorry Chase) – we just have to get back on the horse and get better.

We’ll reload and get going

The positive for the team – was Will’s form, especially after a disappointing Indy 500 for the team.

It was great to see Will get his first win of the year and to win for Roger at the final race on Belle Isle, after he’s been so instrumental in running the event.

He now leads the championship.

And Josef got the pole – so my teammates are setting the bar high and I have to follow.

That’s the challenge right now – we’ll be giving it everything this weekend.

Thanks again for the support,

Scotty