hero-img

Dutton to continue engineering car #1

14 Jul 2015
Five-time Championship winning engineer will remain on Whincup's car for 2015, but will also carry on with many of his team manager duties.
Advertisement
Five time champs back together for 2015

Five-time Championship winning engineer Mark Dutton will remain Jamie Whincup's engineer for 2015 after the Red Bull team deemed the Castrol EDGE Townsville 400 successful.

Dutton shifted from his team manager role to run car #1 for the weekend's event, and while it was meant to be a one-off in technical director Ludo Lacroix's absence, a top five finish for Whincup and positive vibe in the team has been enough to keep him there for the rest of the season.

Six-time champ Whincup has the biggest deficit he's faced since his first year with the team and with a 391 point gap to Championship leader Mark Winterbottom, the team will do all it can to get his title defence back on track.

Dutton will continue to hold some of his team manager responsibilities behind the scenes, while owner Roland Dane will take on the duties at the track and stand up at the 'prat perch' with the engineers.

"I can give you the scoop - yeah, I'll be there for the rest of the year," Dutton confirmed on Inside Supercars this evening.

He emphasised the decision was one that would also help Craig Lowndes - who sits second in the Championship - as the engineering group increased its knowledge and improved performance of the VF Holden Commodores.

"We keep talking about Jamie - it's not all for him and about him. It's a whole team thing. If both cars are doing well you grow and learn off each other and get better and better."

While Whincup implied he did want to continue working with Dutton,for the team it seemed like an obvious move after the turnaround on car #1 over the weekend.

Advertisement

"He [Whincup] was keen, and I like doing it - but the biggest thing was it just worked well on the weekend," Dutton told v8supercars.com.au.

"So it was just clear that it was a good combination - not just myself and Jamie, but myself, Jamie, [David] Cauchi, Grant [McPherson, Lowndes' engineer], the way it was all working went well. So it almost seemed a little bit obvious we should continue it and change the plans."

Dutton will be doing double duties at the workshop to ensure his team manager experience continues and while the workload will be enormous, it's all part of the major comeback Red Bull has planned.

"On the weekend I'll prepare leading up to it as both ... Roland at the track will do some of the team managing role and I'll still manage the team, so busy times ahead for me in that regard," he explained.

"It is [like having two jobs] - you do have to put in extra hours and extra effort, so it comes at an expense ... but we're a team and we put in what we need to. It's a huge job anyway, so making it bigger is just part and parcel."

Dane said in the lead-up to Townsville he "didn't have any ambitions" to be back in the team manager role, but Dutton suggested the team owner did relish being back in the action over the weekend.

"Ludo will be back at the tracks, that'll continue. Roland - I think Roland enjoys being back as the boss again. Just in the races being back in the middle there.

"Racing isn't just in his blood, it's in his bones - it's just him. So he'll be there."

When asked by V8 Supercars Hall of Famer and five-time champion Mark Skaife on Inside Supercars if Whincup can still win from here, Dutton said: "Of course we can mate, you know that. It's not over, there's lots of points to be hard."

Related News

Advertisement