The perfect deal

After a cleansweep at Phillip Island, hot property Scott McLaughlin says it would have to be a ‘perfect deal’ to lure him away from current team Garry Rogers Motorsport.

He believes the mechanical issues that plagued the Volvos in 2015 have been solved and, sitting second in the championship, spoke emotionally about the team that helped put him on the map in V8 Supercars.

The weekend’s results don’t make him see the team in a different light – he has always had the belief they would get there, as they work on the S60 for the third season.

Equipment that can get the job done will be a key consideration for McLaughlin when assessing future options – though he emphasised he wasn’t that far down the track yet.

“At the end of the day I’ve got great equipment as it is, so that’s where your decision has got to be made,” he told v8supercars.com.

“I mean, I’ve got a very happy place where I am and like I said in various reports, it’d have to be perfect somewhere else to make me move.

“This doesn’t change how I think about the team.

“Yes, it’s been tough but we’ve had commitment, we’ve had results along the way but we just haven’t quite had the race pace. Now we’ve got race pace and we’ve got our reliability back – yeah, it’s good.”

McLaughlin has spoken openly about his struggles of 2015, which he’s said helped him become a better leader and learn more about accepting setbacks.

When asked if a key consideration of his future decision was equipment that could get the job done, he said: “That’s what I mean – I haven’t really looked that far ahead anyway.

“That’s got to come up and that’s what you do, your whole thinking about your various things.

“Obviously there’s going to be other contracts come up or other availabilities, but at the end of the day I know I’ve got a strong place here and it’s working out the benefits, working out the negatives.”

Phillip Island has been a strong track for McLaughlin, who has been on the podium each year in the Volvo and won in 2014 as well as this weekend gone.

Making gains at tracks that haven’t traditionally been strong will be important if he is to stay in the top bunch in the championship standings.

“I think we’ve got through a couple of tracks like Tasmania – Darwin’s not really the best track for us, unbelievably because it has a long straight but we just don’t have the pace there ... I’m quietly confident but I’m just going to take every race as it comes.”

In the post-race press conference the 22-year old was asked if his fond words about his team boss Garry Rogers and his crew meant he had swayed towards staying with GRM.

“It’s more the case I’ve got to just keep doing what I can for the team,” he said. 

“I’m not really sure what I’m doing at the moment mate, honestly I’ve had a fantastic … time with Garry.

“He brought me up, ideally I’d love to win the championship for him but at the end of the day results and other things speak and I’ll work it out at the end.”