Shane van Gisbergen was forced to block out several ongoing issues with his new Triple Eight chassis on his way to a stunning Clipsal 500 sweep.
The reigning Supercars champion dominated the weekend scoring two Armor All pole positions and two race wins to make a perfect start to his title defence.
While the Kiwi proved the dominant force on the track, he faced a number of challenges to overcome with his new Red Bull Holden Racing Team machine.
Van Gisbergen described the car as ‘uncomfortable’ due to an ongoing vibration issue which traces back to last week’s official tyre test at Sydney Motorsport Park.
“It’s not that we weren’t confident, but we had a pretty average test,” said van Gisbergen.
“We still learned a lot but we had some unknowns with the car and they were still there this weekend.
“We had big vibrations so it was a bit of a struggle.
“The car is still fast, it doesn’t cost us any time, but it’s very uncomfortable knowing there’s something not right with the car.
“There were a few big problems all weekend, we chipped away at them but never fixed them.
“We need to fix that and make it better.”
Triple Eight team manager Mark Dutton hailed van Gisbergen’s resolve given the issues he faced throughout the weekend.
“I couldn’t be happier with his performance especially with the niggling issues with the car at the test day and we had ongoing issues this weekend,” Dutton told Speedcafe.com.
“However he put that to one side and drive faultlessly and engineer Grant McPherson gave him a rocket ship.
“The problems were not affecting speed and we wasn’t about to DNF the car so we focussed on tuning it through the weekend.
“He kept a level head and did what he was asked to do.”
Dutton says the squad aims to rectify the problems before the non-championship round at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix from March 23-26.
“We have still got a lot of work to do and because we have won with the issues doesn’t mean we will accept them,” he added.
“There is a good turnaround time until the Australian Grand Prix.
“I think we should be able to nail down the vibration.”
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