Out for redemption

Shane van Gisbergen has put the disappointment of Sunday’s race in Tasmania behind him and is looking forward to redemption at Phillip Island.

The quick Kiwi admitted he was still “pissed” about ending the 200km in the sand trap after sliding on another car’s oil.

But he preferred to focus on next week’s round at Phillip Island, a place Red Bull conquered last year and he has shown pace in the past.

Van Gisbergen described Tasmania as awesome notching up Saturday’s win – though “it didn’t end well”.

“I was a bit pissed, but it’s happened and we’ve got Phillip Island in two weeks so I’m working hard towards that now and coming up with a plan,” he told v8supercars.com.

“We’ve got a couple of meetings now and I’m looking forward to the future.

“I know we’ve got a fast car and things are going to happen for us, we just need to keep working at it.”

The 26-year old driver – known for driving anything he can get his hands on anywhere in the world – found the easiest way to get past his disappointment was to get back behind the wheel.  

“It’s happened – you can look at it as many times as you want – which I have done – and now I’m just focused on what we’re doing.

“The biggest thing for me is, I just go racing and focus on that race. The problem is, I’ve got two weeks in the meantime with nothing in between.

“So for me, I’m focused on the Island and getting it done there.”

It has been suggested technical tracks like Phillip Island would see van Gisbergen improve on last year’s results, given the level of resource of the three-car Triple Eight operation.

The quick Kiwi agrees it’s helpful to have more information to draw on, and hasn’t been in the ‘teammate’ situation since before joining one-car team TEKNO for 2013.

“We’re all trying different stuff, we have different styles and when you go a different way in setup it’s pretty easy to look over at [another] car and decide if you’re going to follow them or keep doing your own thing,” he explained.

“It’s interesting how it works. I haven’t been in an environment like that in V8s for a couple of years … [doing it] all yourself has some positives as well, but when you’re lost it’s a big help having good teammates.”

Van Gisbergen has been quick at Phillip Island previously but has never won or earned a pole position there.

He has been caught up in controversy, though, with a clash with title contender David Reynolds resulting in a 25-point penalty for van Gisbergen, and an unusual collision with Fabian Coulthard in qualifying costly in 2014.

“Phillip Island is one of the track where Triple Eight has been one of the quickest cars the last couple of years and I’ve always been in amongst that as well, so there’s a lot of potential there,” van Gisbergen said.

The coming events will be telling year on year, given he failed to feature in the big-points Sunday races in Perth and Winton last year.

“The tracks I haven’t had the best results in the last couple of years, Triple Eight has been good. So I think it’s all gong to work out, we just need to prepare well," he said.

“All the preparation, we’ve always turned up at the track we’ve gone good even the first round so there’s lots of positives to look forward to.”

Van Gisbergen sits seventh in the Championship, 70 points off leader Will Davison. Teammates Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup are second and third on the ladder.