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The team co-owner addressed the good and the bad for WAU in 2023 on the KTM Summer Grill, as well as casting an eye on 2024.
The hottest topic looking forward was the loss of engineer Adam DeBorre, who will step back from full-time Supercars work after a lengthy stint in the category.
For the best part of a decade he has been tied to Chaz Mostert, adding significance to his decision to step back from the race engineer role.
But rather than seeing DeBorre’s exit as a negative, Walkinshaw can see some upsides to the change for his lead driver.
“Look, I mean the relationship with Adam and Chaz has been a really, really good one. but… ultimately, when you look at it, they’ve had some great success, but they still never won a championship together,” said Walkinshaw.
“The opportunity to reset and try and do something different, I don’t think is a bad one.
“Adam is clearly a very, very talented engineer, but like all engineers, they have their pros and cons. There is no such thing as a perfect engineer and no such thing as a perfect driver. You’re always working with elements of each.
“I think a bit of change could be a good thing.
“The relationship with him and Adam will remain; they’re still going to keep in touch, they’re still going to have a close friendship and they’re still going to spend long hours on weekends on FaceTime to each other talking about car set-ups, like they’ve been doing for the last 10 or so years. I don’t think that will change.
“It’s just when he goes to the track there will be a different person he’s working with, and there will be someone else he’s calling before or after he speaks to Adam.
“That relationship doesn’t vanish., And the relationship with Adam and WAU and Adam and Chaz, there’s no break-up there. Adam has just had enough and wants to rest for a couple of years. And after the season we’ve had, and how frustrating it’s been, I can kind of understand some of the reasons he may want to do that at this time.”
DeBorre will be replaced at WAU by ex-Tickford engineer Sam Scaffidi, who moves off James Courtney’s car and onto Mostert’s.
Scaffidi being Melbourne-based, in contrast to New South Wales-based DeBorre, is another win for WAU, according to Walkinshaw.
“The benefit for WAU is that we’re going to have Sam in the workshop every day,” said Walkinshaw.
“Adam was fly in, fly out, and while that is something you can make work, there’s no denying that having an engineer that’s in the workshop 9am every morning until 6pm every night does have some additional value to the team.
“I’m quite looking forward to seeing if that element gives us an edge to what we’ve had previously.
“And ultimately Sam has had some good results and done good work over at Tickford. You can’t deny that Tickford has had some good results this year. They are doing some stuff right there and he’ll have some good knowledge on what that is.
“I’m excited about it and I know that Chaz is excited about it. It’s change, but I find change is more often good than not.”
For more with Ryan Walkinshaw watch the full KTM Summer Grill episode.
