Single-car test for Nissan Motorsport

Nissan Motorsport will run a single-car test with rookie Bryce Fullwood on Tuesday as it focusses on making the most of workshop time ahead of Hidden Valley.

Shell V-Power, Triple Eight, Prodrive, Garry Rogers and Tekno are all set for full, multi-car tests on Tuesday as they seek to explore and develop their already formidable packages.

With just three test days allocated to each team per season, Nissan is among a number of others electing to save theirs for later in the campaign.

Nissan will, however, take advantage of the Evaluation Day rules that allow teams to test with a driver who has not been a full-timer in any of the last three seasons.

Nissan Motorsport manager Scott Sinclair says that running Dunlop Super2 Series driver Fullwood in Rick Kelly’s current Sengled Altima at Winton will serve two purposes.

Fullwood, who recently tested MW Motorsport team-mate Shae Davies’ Nissan, will upgrade from a previous generation Ford to the Kelly car for the next event in Townsville.

“We decided a month or so ago that we wouldn’t test during this period,” Sinclair told Supercars.com.

“Instead of racing back to the track where we’ve just been, we wanted to take stock of all the data that we’ve got from the last couple of months and go through it piece-by-piece.

“At the same time we still have some reliability type stuff that we wanted to go through, so the evaluation day allows us to do that while giving Bryce laps in his car.

“It gives him a day to get familiar with it before he takes it over for Townsville.”

Fullwood will take over Kelly's car after Darwin

Fourteenth placed Todd Kelly is currently the leading Nissan driver in the championship, with none of the four Altimas scoring a top 10 finish across Barbagallo and Winton.

The team showed pace at the opening two events in Adelaide and Albert Park, but has struggled to find speed at the various circuits as the season has progressed.

Sinclair says that there is no one area where the team is struggling, but admits that it has not adapted as well as others to the 2017 tyre.

“There’s no doubt that we’re not comfortable with our set-up at the moment,” continued Sinclair.

“There’s more in the set-up than we’re getting out of the car. Some teams have been able to jump on that and have done a really good job of understanding the tyre.

“We’re not where we want to be in terms of the understanding of what the tyre needs and that’s been reflected in our results.

“We’re in that second-tier pack at the moment behind Penske, Triple Eight and Prodrive.

“When we get it right we’re right on the back of those guys but when we get it wrong we’re at the back of the midfield pack, which is high teens.

“It’s been a challenge no doubt and that middle group is quite tight. In the short-term we’re confident that we can get to the back of Prodrive but then the next step is a big one.

Scott Sinclair

“But we’re working on that concurrently because we certainly won’t be satisfied if we get to the back of Prodrive.”

Stressing the importance of making the most of the break between Winton and Hidden Valley, Sinclair said the compact nature of the early events has magnified Nissan’s issues.

“Your best decisions are made at home,” he said.

“There’s this romantic thought that people have the ability to make great decisions at the race track, but that rarely happens.

“All your groundwork and planning happens at the workshop and we, as everyone has, haven’t had much time for that this year.

“Once you miss the boat a little bit it gets exaggerated because you just don’t have that time to recover.

“In reality it’s never as good as it seems and it’s never as bad as it seems. At the grand prix Michael was in the top three or four for most of the weekend.

“Things change quickly but they can just as quickly move back the other way. It’s certainly not doom and gloom or crisis meetings.

“We’re quite clear on what we need to work on and that’s what we’re doing.”