Love sits last of the drivers who have contested every round of the season to date, occupying 23rd in the championship.
In those 16 races, the 22-year-old has a season-best 12th place finish in Melbourne in Race 6. The Perth-born pilot has otherwise not featured with nine finishes outside the top 20.
His Blanchard Racing Team stablemate James Courtney hasn’t fared much better. The 2010 champion is 16th in the standings and has just two top 10 finishes.
Love’s lacklustre results aren’t his fault, according to Blanchard. Speaking with Speedcafe, the team principal said BRT has to give Love the opportunity to perform before writing him off.
“We haven’t given him a good enough car,” said Blanchard.
“That’s a big thing. You look at his history and what he did in a Super2 car, the talent is there. The transition to the main series is incredibly tough as it is, and when you don’t give a young kid the proper equipment it puts them in a really difficult position.
“At least with James [Courtney], he’s kind of been there and done it. He’s been there a long time. He’s got a lot of confidence in that he knows when the car’s good, he can do the job and so he can kind of rest – not that he does – but he can rest on his laurels a little bit knowing that when the car is good he’ll be alright.
“Aaron’s still trying to prove himself, so he’s been put between a rock and a hard place at the moment.”
Blanchard affirmed plans for BRT to see through its two-year deal with Love into 2025.
“We have a two year agreement at the moment, so there are no plans to change that up,” he said.
“In Porsche and Super2 we saw the raw talent he’s got, we’ve just wanna give him the tools to do it in the main game and hopefully that’ll build some confidence.”
Blanchard, who made 13 starts in the Bathurst 1000, said there have been other instances of drivers not performing early in their career before finding their feet.
“There are so many guys in this pit lane that everyone considers big names at the moment,” he said.
“If you look back at their first year, there were a lot of people questioning whether they should be here or not.
“They’re now getting trophies and everyone has a very different view on them and I’m sure that will be a similar story for Aaron.”
Blanchard is optimistic that when they find success, that’ll have a knock-on effect for the entire team.
“The culture and the mood and everything in the team changes very quickly when you get some good results and the results are hard at the moment and makes it challenging to keep pushing, keep working hard and looking for those improvements,” said Blanchard.
“This game is so close. We’ve just got to have one weekend where it changes for the better and I think it’ll change a lot internally.”
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