Can Volvo threaten Red Bull this season?
The battle between Volvo and Red Bull has raged since the season opener, when Scott McLaughlin snatched second at the final corner from five-time Champ Jamie Whincup.
Yesterday it was his teammate and vocal McLaughlin supporter Craig Lowndes who went head to head with the Valvoline-backed blue beast.
And while Lowndes admits the new manufacturer can challenge for race wins, he wouldn’t go as far as saying he saw McLaughlin as a threat to his Championship.
“We’ll see over the year,” he said tactfully.
“The Champion needs to be consistent, and that’s really the fact. It’s a long year – you can have speed in certain places, but you’ve just got to be consistent throughout the year.
“It (the Volvo) has got the speed – we’ll see if it’s got the consistency.”
McLaughlin said at this stage of the season both teams were just “doing their thing” but didn’t want to be counted out just yet.
“We’ve got a little bit to go,” he told v8supercars.com.au.
“Those guys are quick this weekend, but I don’t think we’re out of the Championship. It’s going to be tough to top those guys. They’re a class act … but we’re definitely going to be a threat in the future.
“Hopefully I’m going to be racing those guys for the years to come.”
The Volvo team has struggled with power steering issues this weekend at Symmons Plains – though it didn’t stop McLaughlin from finishing fifth and fourth in the 100km races, with his rookie teammate Robert Dahlgren managing to qualify in the top 10, after Lowndes was penalised for a technical breach in the second race and knocked down to last position.
“It’s costing us a lot, and it’s not going to help us win races,” McLaughlin said of the steering dramas.
“I don’t know what it is. It worries us, we’re worried we’re going to have it at Winton next week as well. We’ve never had it at Albert Park or Adelaide, even the test day, so we don’t know. We’re confused. Bamboozled.”
The 20-year old joked he felt like Arnold Schwarzenegger wrangling around the circuit – and with double the distance in one sitting, it will be interesting to see how he handles it in this afternoon’s 200km sprint.
“I said to Robert, I think I was getting pretty tired at the end, I thought the power steering was worse … The car’s going really well at the moment, it developed a little vibration towards the end but I think it’s going to be a good test. We did 250km around Clipsal – or nearly did – but we’ll be right.
“We developed a bit of a vibration there but nothing to worry about.”
McLaughlin enjoyed the opportunity to duel with one of his heroes, and this time came out in front, snagging fourth position and sealing an extra five Championship points with the pass.
“It was awesome,” he said of the contest.
“It was like that battle I had with Jamie, hard but fair. I enjoyed it, Craig is awesome to battle with and someone I look up to a lot so it’s pretty cool to battle with him.”
McLaughlin wanted to know what Lowndes had said about the contest, genuinely concerned about his heroes feelings afterward. Ever the nice guy, all the #888 racer had done was compliment McLaughlin’s performance.
“It was good to have a battle with Scotty, he was driving really well,” Lowndes said.
“We were able to catch him … We put it on the line, dived down the inside, into six, we went side by side through six and seven and at the other end (he was) still in front.
“We just didn’t have the tyre life at the end there to really battle and get the power down as much as we needed to.
“Their cars are strong, they’ve shown they’re still very quick, in the top five both races.”
Will the Volvo-Red Bull war rage on today, or will it be different rivals at the front of the field?
Qualifying begins at 11.25am AEDT, with the 200km race at 3.55pm.
Tickets are still available for the Tyrepower Tasmania 400.
