Building Confidence Key for Xbox Team
Keep it simple – that is the plan for Ludo Lacroix, Triple Eight Race Engineering’s technical director, who is engineering the XBox One Racing Holden Commodore for the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.
When you don’t want to drop the ball, Lacroix believes the key is not to juggle too many.
“The plan is not to get in the wall!” he told v8supercars.com.au. “When you do that, you don’t get the time … You get sucked at Bathurst into trying to go fast, when you should be learning the track. And most guys – they go too early too quick, then hit the wall, and they come back scared and they never get quick enough to get to the race.”
The Xbox One #10 Commodore is a wild card entry for this weekend’s race, to be driven by Mattias Ekstrom and Andy Priaulx.
While Priaulx has contested the event before, back in 2009 with David Reynolds in a Walkinshaw Racing Holden, for Ekstrom today’s Practice Part Two will be his first time around the mountain.
Managing each drivers’ time in the car is easy for Lacroix – it will be according to the rules of each practice session.
Priaulx is nominated as the main driver and at this stage, will run in the first and third sessions today open for all drivers, while Ekstrom will utilise each minute of parts two and four, solely dedicated to co-drivers.
“Mattias has two sessions he’s got to drive and nobody else is in the car,” Lacroix explained.
“Which means then – because we want to get both of them at the same speed with the same sort of mileage – we may have to pool a bit more on one than the other at some stage during the practice.
“But for the time being, we believe we have all the same performance, they just need the knowledge of the track. That comes only with laps.
“What we’re not trying to do now is get them in the car and try and make a set-up that is good for both, we’ll just make sure they are comfortable with the car.”
However, while Priaulx has been delegated main driver status, that does not necessarily mean he will qualify the car.
The team is not yet focusing on Saturday’s qualifying – that will depend on which of the drivers gets up to speed quickest, and will be discussed after tomorrow’s practice four.
Regardless of who will qualify, it is important both drivers are quick, as Lacroix stated they would not double stint.
“I don’t want to put any pressure on these guys. I don’t know who’s going to start the race and who’s going to finish the race. What I know, is the one who does the first stint is not doing the next stint.
“I need both drivers to buy into it … We are not here to find the best driver of the two, but have the best group and finish in the top 10, that’s where we are aiming."
Coy about the car’s chances, Lacroix would not make any predictions.
However, he spoke complimentarily about the crew and the experience many had running Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes’ cars in the past, as well as what was achieved over the recent two day test session.
As rookies, he felt Ekstrom and Priaulx needed both days.
“You can’t ask an international driver to pull in – even if he’s a recent Championship winner, twice DTM Champion, World Champion in touring cars – you can’t pull a lap here sitting in our cars.
“These cars, you’ve got to realise, are very, very Australian specific. There’s nothing like them in the world.”
For Lacroix, the opportunity to engineer a car was one he was excited about – especially given he has raced with Ekstrom for three years previously, but never engineered his car – though it’s not something he’d be looking to move back to full-time, since last running Jamie Whincup's car in 2007.
The Xbox Commodore will have its first run around Mount Panorama at 10.25am AEDT today, when the V8 Supercars hit the track for the first practice session.
