James Golding and Richie Stanaway are placed 16th and 20th in the drivers’ championship respectively after seven rounds, with PremiAir ninth in the teams’ standings.
The squad therefore faces the prospect of neither of its entries making the much-hyped new Finals Series, which kicks off with 10 drivers after the Bathurst 1000.
It marks a step backwards from 2024, when Golding finished seventh in points – having scored the squad’s maiden pole and podium – and PremiAir ended the year eighth.
“Very disappointing. This is our fourth season. I felt like every year we’ve improved, and we haven’t done that this year,” Xiberras told Speedcafe.
“There’s still time to turn it around, but I’m not going to lie, we’ve definitely under-performed from where we should have been.
“At the same time everyone else has picked up their game and sometimes you can beat yourself up because we might be three tenths of a second off and that puts us down the back.”
Xiberras isn’t placing all the blame at the hands of the drivers and suggests the squad may need to add more personnel to compete with the heavyweights.
The team has already had its share of change in-season, with Pete Vale taking over from Stephen Robertson as team manager, and Gwyn Dolphin’s stint as CEO short-lived.
Engineering has been shuffled too, with technical mastermind Ludo Lacroix handing the reins of Stanaway’s car to youngster Andrew Gilliam to concentrate on the bigger picture.
“There’s always that question; is it the driver? Is it the team? Is it the engineers?” said Xiberras. “As a team you won’t win unless everyone is pulling their weight and giving it a red-hot go.”
However, he makes no secret of the fact neither Golding nor Stanaway – whose trumpeted two-year deal is understood to include an option on the team’s side – are locked in for next year.
There’s increasing speculation that a double change is being considered. Roland Dane, who is part of a co-driver decision to be taken this week, is thought likely to play a role in 2026 choices too.
“Hand on heart, it’s a really hard part of the year. You don’t want to give up on the drivers that you’ve got, because if they fail, you fail, and vice versa,” Xiberras said.
“I don’t want to give up on them but at the same time if you don’t start looking early enough, the musical chairs, the music stops and there’s no one left.
“Right now, we’re almost sitting on the fence working out, do we stick with what we’ve got? Do we look? It’s tough.
“It is a silly season because every three minutes a driver rings looking for a drive. They won’t wait until the end of the year, if a drive comes up, they’ll grab it.
“We need to make some calls one way or another and stick with it.”
Golding joined PremiAir midway through 2022, which proved a career lifeline after finding himself on the sidelines following Garry Rogers Motorsport’s withdrawal at the end of 2019.
PremiAir also offered a lifeline to Stanaway this year after he was let go by Grove Racing after a single season.
The Kiwi had effectively retired from racing after driving for GRM in 2019 before rebuilding his career with a 2023 Bathurst 1000 win as a co-driver at Triple Eight.
Dane is known to have pushed Stanaway’s case to PremiAir in 2024. He’s also a supporter of Nash Morris, who is expected to get the nod to co-drive with the Kiwi this season.
“You’ve seen it all before, a driver can be awesome in one team, move to another team and he’s not so awesome,” noted Xiberras, speaking generically about the difficulty of driver choices.
“The thing I keep saying to anyone, they’re all awesome drivers, they can all drive.
“Sometimes you’ve got to get guys who fit in the team and gel and are part of it. Sometimes that’s the magic that makes or breaks.”
Discussion about this post