Former full-time V8 Supercars driver Karl Reindler has been appointed as the Driver Development manager at the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport.
Reindler officially takes over the role on December 1 when he replaces Cameron McConville.
McConville, who will also relinquish his role after the Sydney 500 as the V8 Supercars’ Investigating Officer, is now concentrating on his role as the manager for motorsport with Porsche Cars Australia.
“Karl not only has a proven himself on circuits here and abroad, on top of that, he has a genuine passion to see this part of Australian motor sport developed and that has to be commended.” CAMS chief executive Eugene Arocca said.
Reindler plans on targetting Mark Webber’s F1 replacement, fellow Aussie Daniel Ricciardo, on what role he may be able to play to help the young driver program.
“I would like to see Daniel Ricciardo involved. He has been involved with CAMS in the past and I’ve got a great relationship with him. It would be great to have these young go-karters have someone like Daniel to really aspire and look up to,” Reindler said.
Part of the challenge for Reindler will be working closely with the Formula 4 category following CAMS’ recent decision to embrace the class as the open-wheel nursery for the future.
“That is going to be a very important relationship, not only next year but obviously when the category starts up in 2015,” Reindler said.
“That’s where a big pool of the talent is going to be coming from. There are obviously other categories we cannot neglect… Formula 3, which is a very important stepping stone to Formula 1.There are also rally championships.
“Obviously we’ve got to look at kids from a very young age and in particular identifying talent from a go-karting level.”
McConville says he has not totally severed links with CAMS despite Reindler’s appointment.
“I plan to still have an involvement with driver’s camps and CAMS in general,” he said.
“I am certainly not abandoning ship but I believe in driver development there must be a certain amount and time and effort put in and unfortunately I don’t’ have that time at present with my role at Porsche.”
