Prodrive boss Tim Edwards says the team will channel the frustrations from this year over the summer break to come back fighting next season.
The Ford squad has struggled to capitalise upon a standout campaign last season which produced a combined 20 race wins and a maiden Supercars Championship for Mark Winterbottom.
In contrast, Prodrive has scored just two victories this season having struggled to match the front-running Triple Eight operation for pace and consistency across all types of circuits.
Defending champion Winterbottom claimed both victories as he finished sixth in the standings, while seventh placed Chaz Mostert ended the year winless.
Edwards felt his squad had a more competitive package than 2015 but were unable to match the new heights set by Triple Eight.
“We are all frustrated because we are racers and once you have tasted victory it makes it even worse as you want to taste it again,” Edwards told Speedcafe.com.
Buy tickets
“It all comes down to hard graft. It is not like we are lacking in one area. We have just got to do the hard work.
“It is just small improvements and when you find those you go from zero to hero. This year we have gone the other way.
“We have got some work to do. We feel we were more competitive than last year which means the bar has just been lifted even higher by our competitors.
“We haven’t lost our way or gone backwards it is just the level of competition is getting higher and we didn’t jump high enough this year.”
Prodrive elected to carry out development work during the Coates Hire Sydney 500 finale in a bid to steal a march on next season.
Street circuits have proved a challenge this season highlighted once again last weekend with Winterbottom scoring a best result of 12th in Sunday’s race.
“Given the limited testing time in this category sometimes you have to use race meetings as we didn’t have much to play for and it was worth the gamble,” Edwards added.
“Street circuits have been our biggest issues which is why we were trying things this weekend.
“We have got some work to do for next year and I think everybody is up for the challenge.”
The squad’s lead driver Winterbottom has mixed emotions reflecting on the season which saw him debut the #1 on his car.
The 35-year-old is however confident the team can turn around its fortunes.
“Adelaide was the proudest moment of my life rolling out the #1 on the car, but finishing sixth in the championship and handing it back is one of the least satisfying moments of my career,” Winterbottom told Speedcafe.com
“We clearly didn’t do a good enough job and they beat us because they were better.
“I have mixed emotions about the year. I hope we are loaning the #1 plate and not giving it away.
“We need to make changes and focus on some areas. The engineers are not silly people and they know what we need to do.
“Fingers crossed we can get on top of it.”
Discussion about this post