Lowndes: Upgrades coming for Red Bulls
13 Jul 2015
V8 Supercars legend Craig Lowndes is confident a Red Bull fightback against dominant Prodrive Racing Australia will succeed, confirming a new batch of chassis upgrades are coming for his and teammate Jamie Whincup's Holden Commodore VFs at the Coates Hire Ipswich SuperSprint.
While unwilling to predict the degree of improvement the upgrades might deliver, Lowndes said Triple Eight Racing Australia, the parent of the Red Bull team, would eventually bridge the gap to the new Falcon FG Xs that have won nine of the last 11 championship races.
"No doubt. There is no doubt about that, everyone is working very hard, not just the drivers and the engineers but everyone back at the workshop," Lowndes told v8supercars.com.au. "We are searching for new things. In a sense it's good for us because it pushes us to keep searching."
Lowndes has been the sole Holden winner in the last 11 races and runs second in the drivers' championship, albeit a massive 248 points behind runaway leader Mark Winterbottom in his PRA Pepsi Max Falcon FGX. Meanwhile Whincup has drifted 391 points off the pace and sits eighth in the championship.
The next championship round is the Coates Hire Ipswich SuperSprint on July 31-August 2.
While Winterbottom swept both 200km races at the Castrol EDGE Townsville 400 last weekend, Lowndes struggled to 14th and ninth place finishes, unable to produce race-winning pace or longevity from the Dunlop hard or soft tyres. He qualified 13th on Saturday and a disastrous 23rd on Sunday, unable to generate singe lap speed out of the hard tyre after making a miss-step on set-up.
Lowndes confirmed the upgrades coming for Ipswich were designed to address the hard and soft tyre balance and speed of the cars.
"That is the theory, but like any upgrades or components we have to put on the car, we first have to put them on, see if they work and see if they are reliable.
"So there is still a little way to go but hopefully we have some things in the pipeline that potentially should help us with tyre life and hopefully speed to be honest, because that is the main thing we are looking for, just outright speed.
"Qualifying, cornering and getting a balance in the car; at Townsville we searched for front, then we searched for rear and then we searched for front again and then we searched for rear.
"So we didn't have in a sense one good end of the car. And we sort of see-sawed all weekend - both cars did. We can make a change to the balance of the car but it's not making an overall balance."
A pitlane drive-through penalty for spinning wheels in a pit stop inflicted on Fabian Coulthard in Sunday's race played a key role in Lowndes climbing back into second in the championship, albeit by just 12 points.
But Lowndes suffered his own dramas, spinning early after contact with Tim Blanchard's Cooldrive Commodore, then having the left-front wheel nut jam in a stop costing him time and ultimately ensuring he would drop behind rookie Andre Heimgartner in the PRA-fettled Super Black Racing FG X. The silver lining in that was he was able to have a good look at the strengths and weaknesses of the FG X.
"There is no doubt we were struggling for pace and we knew Townsville was going to be one of those bad rounds," admitted Lowndes. "So I think it proved to be that case, we managed to salvage something and we got back to second in the championship but I think only with a bit of luck.
"We did not have the speed to be at the front, although we made the car better as we went. We still struggled for overall pace on both hard and soft tyre.
"There is no doubt the Falcons have pace. They have good drive off corners. They didn't look too flash on the entry to the corner, we seemed to have their match on that side of it. But definitely the drive off the corners we didn't.
"So we have work to do before we get to Ipswich."
While he acknowledged the run of success of the Falcons was causing consternation and some debate along pitlane, Lowndes praised both PRA for its development of the FG X and the team's drivers for using it to the maximum.
"I have no doubt people will be jumping and down, but credit to them (PRA). They had their three Falcons - and almost four Falcons in the top four - so they obviously have a very good package at the moment and they are obviously using it. It's swings and roundabouts.
"If you look at the eras that go by there are different eras where different teams and different manufacturers definitely have their time in the limelight and Prodrive is definitely having theirs at the moment.
"They not only have a good car but they are driving it well; Not only Frosty but Chaz is doing exceptionally well. Heimgartner is going a great job for his rookie year, and Dave Reynolds - we always knew he was quick but he never really had the mongrel in him and he is finally getting that."
