Russell unfazed by driving with championship leader

David Russell is not feeling any extra pressure from the task of co-driving with championship leader Brodie Kostecki in this year’s Supercars enduros.

After sweeping the three sprint races at The Bend, Erebus Motorsport’s Kostecki takes a 137-point lead into the Penrite Oil Sandown 500, in which 300 points are on offer for victory.

The reality is that a slip-up in the #99 Coca-Cola Camaro this weekend could see him drop as low as fourth in the standings, given it is 258 points covering the primary drivers of each of Erebus and Triple Eight Race Engineering at the top of the table.

Russell has, though, already partnered Kostecki to a third and a fourth in the last two runnings of the Bathurst 1000 and is unfazed by the job ahead in 2023.

“[There is only] As much [pressure] as you put on yourself,” he told Speedcafe.

“I put the pressure on myself to perform and make no mistakes and do all that.

“I think the smartest option is to work on my pace and work on what I need to do in the stints.

“Whatever happens in those, you’ve just got to have that end goal in mind and of making sure that it’s not a sprint race.

“I’ve been doing it long enough to know when to hold them and when to fold them, so it’ll just be a matter for us to work it out on the day.”

Erebus has managed to bank test days such that, while it made a pre-enduro outing at Winton last week when every other team was also testing, it still has another to come between Sandown and the Repco Bathurst 1000.

Russell, like virtually every other co-driver, may not have raced a Gen3 Supercar yet, but he is not wanting for a respectable benchmark given the form of the driver with whom he shares the #99 Camaro.

“Look, even at a test day, to measure yourself against the guy that put four tenths on the field at Tailem Bend, it’s actually really good,” he explained during that recent test.

“Because, for me, that reference on how to do it and how to improve… This has really been my first overall test day ever in a Gen3 car so there’s been a steep learning curve.

“I’m feeling comfortable,” added the 41-year-old.

“It’s very different, I must say – it’s a lot different from driving all the other gen[eration of] cars but it’s still a race car and I’ve been driving race cars for a long time, so you just get in and figure it out.”

Practice 1 at Sandown starts today at 10:45 local time/AEST.