That’s the message from PremiAir Racing’s technical guru Ludo Lacroix following the enigmatic Kiwi’s first three rounds aboard the team’s #62 Chevrolet Camaro.
Stanaway, 33, has endured a patchy start to his time at PremiAir, which offered a career lifeline following his axing from Grove Racing after a single season.
He is currently 22nd in the standings and without a top 10 finish amid a series of misfortunes that included an engine failure in the second race of the season.
There have, however, been flashes of speed, including a trio of top 10 qualifying efforts at Albert Park, highlighted by a second-row grid slot for the rained-out Sunday encounter.
Lacroix spoke openly about Stanaway’s season to date in PremiAir’s post-Taupo debrief video, revealing the team’s plans for the following races.
“There is no secret, there is no magic in our business,” said Lacroix of getting the most from Stanaway.
“There is more of understanding what to do, from the driver’s side and from the engineer’s side. How to set up the car for the race, it’s a discussion all the time between driver and engineer.
“I think we are getting closer but if you miss the set up, and it’s a narrow window, you’re probably going to be a little bit far away and it does cost a lot.
“The second thing is if you miss quali you are going to suffer a bit too, because you lose 15 seconds from the first 20 laps easily. You’re in the hot air and there is no tyre that likes hot air.
“I think we’re moving forward. I’m happy with Richie, his dedication, his preciseness, he’s definitely trying a lot.
“We changed his pedal box position, we’ve changed lots of little things to try to get him to drive better and have better stints.”
Stanaway’s move to PremiAir this season put the Kiwi back in a Camaro built by Triple Eight, the team with which he resurrected his career by winning Bathurst as a co-driver in 2023.
PremiAir’s customer relationship with Triple Eight affords the satellite squad access to data and set up information, which Lacroix deemed important while Stanaway settled into the squad.
“Richie and myself sat down earlier in the year and said, ‘look, we want to follow a little bit what they do because they do it well,’” Lacroix explained.
“We have so far tried to be as close as possible to Triple Eight’s set up.
“When we say that, we picked up one of the two drivers because they don’t necessarily set up their car the same way, so we’ve been trying to be close to [Broc] Feeney.
“It’s not always easy to adapt to their set up and their driving. Slowly by slowly I think with Richie we are getting more confident so that we can set up a bit more for him.
“We need to look at what’s happening next door [at Triple Eight], because we have the luxury to see it, but we need to understand that we are setting up the car for ourselves.”
Lacroix noted the process of straying away from supplied set ups after the early races is something that PremiAir undertook in 2024 during his own first year with the team.
“It’s a maturation. We needed two or three races to get mature and try and understand what to do,” he continued.
“We did that last year, we were probably a bit more successful towards the end of the year in doing so. I wanted Richie to feel confident, I think we are getting there.
“There are some very good elements in his driving style during the race, which I am really happy [about], he has worked excessively hard and that’s a very good reward.
“We will try to get a bit closer earlier on, but the most important thing is to set the car for Richie now, knowing what’s happening around and trying to understand what’s happening around.”
Stanaway’s teammate James Golding is 13th in the championship with four top 10 finishes, including a ninth and a 10th last time out at Taupo.
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