More homework for Red Bull

Jamie Whincup is confident of his Red Bull Racing Australia team's plans to get back on track for the 2015 V8 Supercars Championship, and has flagged preparation for race meetings as the area they most need to improve.

While Whincup believes the team has been using the opportunity to learn and develop during Friday practice sessions, he said doing more homework leading into the weekend was the key to coming out of itin front of his competitors.

He currently sits fourth in the Championship standings after four point-scoring rounds - two that have not traditionally been happy hunting grounds at Winton and Perth - and is looking towards the SKYCITY Triple Crown Darwin event, to be staged from June 19-21.

He's earned two race wins this season - one200km Sundayrace in Tasmania, and the first race of the season on Saturday of the Clipsal 500.

"I think the biggest downfall is we haven't rocked up to the track close enough ... that's the issue," Whincup told v8supercars.com.au.

"We've been maximising Fridays, but we've been starting way too far behind the last couple of race meetings.

"So we're doing a good job on the weekend, we've just got to do a bit more homework and be much better at preparation in the lead up, that's the biggest area of weakness."

The defending champ was in a similar position last year, and then recorded top three finishes at five of the six races across the following rounds in Darwin and Townsville, nabbed the Championship lead at Queensland Raceway and ended the year a round clear of any competitors totake his record breaking sixth V8 Supercars title.

But Whincup warned they could not rely on last year's pattern to play out again - particularly given the Hidden Valley circuit has been resurfaced, so the team will need to learn on the run.

"We've got a pretty clear plan, it's just a matter of executing that plan and hopefully the plan is detailed enough and on-track.

"So there's nothing really to report, we're just doing our thing.

"We've won some races, we've had some shockers, yeah there's no panic stations, or no high fives at the same time, we just have a job to do and we'll execute it like we do every year...

"I've got confidence and faith in the crew, it's not the first time, it's happened many times in the last 10 years where we haven't quite been in the place we want to be but every single time they've been able to step up raise the game and get into the position we want to be in so we've got full faith we can do that again - but there's no guarantees. Time will tell."

While Whincup had the opportunity to debrief with his team post-Winton, he jetted out shortly after to Europe for the Monaco Grand Prix and a look at Red Bull HQ in Austria, a highlight being a helicopter tour of the country from Felix Baumgartner, the record-smashing sky jumper born in Salzburg.

"We literally jumped in this chopper, took off and had a look at some amazing country - it was a proper helicopter tour, he was stopping at places, showing us the cliff wall where he did all his training ... we checked out all the lakes, had a look at the snowfields. Literally making it up as we went - it was the best way to see Austria, it was great."

Despite an enjoyable trip, the six-time champ seemed happy to be home and to get back into it, spending yesterday at Red Bull's Banyo workshop and catching up on the developments that occurred while he was overseas.

While he was gone, the team had officially obtained a third Racing Entitlement Contract (REC, licence to race), making room for Shane van Gisbergen to race alongside Whincup and Lowndes in the 2016 season and beyond.

Lowndes believes the third car will strengthen the team, and Whincup agrees.

"Yeah I'm on the same page - Lowndesy has been a fantastic teammate, so it's fantastic that we're both around another two years. We do work really closely with Shane anyway down at Tekno, so nothing's really going to change, he's just going to be in the same garage, so looking forward to that.

"I think it's going to be a strong thing."

The SKYCITY Triple Crown runs from June 19-21, with tickets available by clicking here.

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