Frosty Warns on Bathurst Hangover

Concerned about a team hangover from his Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 victory, Ford’s number one Championship chance Mark Winterbottom has reiterated how crucial it is to make a strong start to the 2014 V8 Supercars Championship.

While encouraged by some aspects of Ford Performance Racing’s off-season preparation, Winterbottom is also determined that no complacency infects the operation.

“Winning Bathurst was fantastic but it also hurt us because all the guys are that passionate about winning it,” Winterbottom admitted to v8supercars.com.au. 

“It’s a bit of a killer in disguise.”

The most direct impact on Winterbottom as the departure of his highly-rated engineer James Small to NASCAR with Paul Menard of Richard Childress Racing.

It means Winterbottom will start 2014 with his third engineer in three seasons.

Small has been replaced by former teammate Will Davison’s engineer Grant McPherson. In 2012 he worked with Campbell Little, who has jumped ship to Dick Johnson Racing.  

But Winterbottom revealed some other staff had also departed in the off-season. “We won Bathurst and that fulfilled a goal and dream for them.”

Davison, who finished third in the Championship to Winterbottom’s fourth, has moved on to Erebus Motorsport. 

Winterbottom has also lost Bathurst-winning co-driver Steve Richards to Red Bull Racing Australia, where he will partner with Craig Lowndes.

FPR also loses highly rated engineer Mat Nilsson back to Walkinshaw Racing in 2014, although that deal was done well before Bathurst.

Both Winterbottom and Davison were a shot at the title into the last event in 2013, but were shut out by the Red Bull Racing duo of Jamie Whincup and Lowndes. 

FPR has yet to win the Championship and that, says Winterbottom, should act to kill off any Bathurst after-glow heading into the new season.

“I want to win and it’s the last thing to try and win in this series,” Winterbottom said.

“I would love to win it but you are not owed anything, there are good drivers and good teams out there.

“You have to keep trying and fix the mistakes and that’s me and the team and everyone, you have to improve everything you can.”

Winterbottom is desperate to get off to a better star at this week’s Clipsal 500 in Adelaide than last year, when a gearbox issue put him out of the Saturday race and behind in the points race for the rest of the season. He is yet to win a race, or record an ARMOR ALL Pole Position at the Adelaide Parklands Circuit.

"The start I had last year forced me to be aggressive and in hindsight lost me points,” he admitted.

“But at that time you felt like you had to do everything you could to get those points back. So a clean start at Clipsal I think is absolutely crucial to a good Championship and your mindset for the whole year.”

One area where Winterbottom is convinced an improvement has been made within the team is the relationship between the four drivers. 

Will Davison’s replacement in the other Pepsi Max Falcon FG II is young gun Chaz Mostert, while Jack Perkins takes over from Will’s brother Alex in the Jeld-Wen Falcon, also run out of the FPR shop. David Reynolds continues on in the Bottle-O Ford.

“The four drivers all feel really good working together, the team feels really good, everyone’s working with each other and that’s probably the biggest thing that’s changed this year to every other year I’ve been there. When you look at what’s changed, it does feel like a very different vibe but time will tell if that means results or not.”

The Clipsal 500 kicks off with support categories on Thursday and the V8 Supercars hitting the track on Friday. Tickets are available for the larger than life event, which also boasts a range of off-track entertainment.