Chaz Mostert says he will take plenty of positives out of 2016 regardless of whether he can break his long winless streak at the Sydney season finale.
Mostert is the only driver in the championship’s top 10 that has failed to register a victory during the season’s 27 races to date.
The penultimate event at Pukekohe last month saw the 24-year-old take his fifth podium of the year, all of which have been third place finishes.
Team-mate Mark Winterbottom has won just twice in what has been a stark contrast to Prodrive’s combined 20 victories last year.
“It’s going to be hard (to win) because those Red Bull guys are pretty lit,” Mostert, who is without a win since August, 2015, told Speedcafe.com.
“We’ve had some good qualifying speed through the year (including nine front-row starts), but it’s one of those things.
“If we don’t get a win then we don’t get one, everyone is trying to do the same thing.
“Unfortunately most of them have done a better job than us at some point in the year and won.
“I won’t be down and out about it (ending the year winless). I’ve had a few podiums and pole positions.
“It’s not been a write-off year, it just hasn’t been as successful as the last few.
“There’s definitely some things we need to do in the off-season to get our cars better.
“It’s not a simple matter of exploring the set-up window, we need to go back and do some development.”
Mostert began the year under a cloud as he continued to recover from injuries sustained in his 2015 season ending crash at Bathurst.
Although the driver downplayed any physical or mental hangover from the incident, team co-owner Rod Nash believes Mostert was carrying ‘scars’ early in the year.
Nash has no doubt, however, that Mostert is well and truly back to his best and that it is up to the team to give him a car that can win races.
“There’s no doubt that he went through a torrid time over Christmas with the injuries and getting back to life as a young sports person,” he said.
“He’s climbed in the car and probably initially had to come back up to speed, but he’s in that absolute top level of drivers in the whole category.
“I believe he was carrying some scars and, as young as he is, he’s professional enough to realise you need to leave that behind you and charge on forward.
“I felt that in Darwin something clicked. He wasn’t doing anything wrong before that, but he was back at the top of his game and he’s been there ever since.”
Mostert’s other main challenge in the early part of the season was working with new engineer Brad Wischusen, who was moved onto the youngster’s car following the departure of Adam De Borre.
De Borre and Mostert had enjoyed a close bond, working together for the driver’s entire main series career across Dick Johnson Racing in 2013 and two seasons at Prodrive.
Mostert says it took more than half the season for the dynamic with Wischusen to really click, but is confident that they are now extracting the maximum from the car.
“I felt that by Queensland Raceway we’d really started to gel,” he said, having finished nine of the 12 races since the start of Ipswich in the top six.
“It was certainly a process of me learning what he liked to do with the car and him learning how I like the car.
“That run of top fives we had in the lead-up to Bathurst showed that we’re getting the most out of the current package we’ve got.
“What we’ve got to do now is take the package forward and give those Red Bull guys a good run.
“We’re still working hard, but as a team we just haven’t been where we were last year.
“We’re using these last couple of races as testing going into next year as strong as we can.
“If we jag a win or a podium then that’s even better, because it’s a great reward for the boys and the work they put into these cars.”
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