Van Gisbergen to accelerate

Triple Eight Race Engineering team owner Roland Dane is confident he and his staff can accommodate and direct Shane van Gisbergen’s hard-nosed racing attitude.

And Dane also predicts being at a big team and team-mate to Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes will accelerate the talented Kiwi’s learning curve as a racing driver in and out of the car.

Van Gisbergen joins Whincup in a Red Bull Racing Australia Holden Commodore VF this year, while Lowndes moves to the new TeamVortex Holden entry.

The 26-year-old New Zealander will test for the first time in his brand new RBRA Commodore this week, after moving in the off-season from T8 customer Tekno Autosports. He will sample the car today at a 60km shakedown at Queensland Raceway, alongside Lowndes, who also receives a brand new car. 

Van Gisbergen has been the sole focus of the Webb family-owned one-car team for the last three years, but now joins an operation that boasts the two dominant V8 Supercars drivers of the last decade.

Van Gisbergen is perhaps the fiercest racer in the V8 Supercars field and he doesn’t cop what he perceives as unfair treatment. That combined with outstanding car control has led to him being a staple of the highlights reel – usually when he pulls a pass almost no-one else would contemplate.

The biggest recent dust-up was with David Reynolds at Phillip Island late last year, where van Gisbergen felt aggrieved at the Ford driver’s behaviour and ended up spinning him out of the race and driver’s championship contention.

Van Gisbergen received a 25-point penalty for that move and it’s the one incident of 2015 that Dane cites as proof that there’s still room for his new driver to improve.

“I think the only thing that I am conscious of seeing last year with him that I would have said to him was the wrong thing to do and get involved with was allowing David Reynolds to get him twitchy at Phillip Island,” Dane told v8supercars.com.au.

“I think that Shane allowed the red mist to come down there which he shouldn’t have done. So we have to try and manage that but I think (team manager) Mark Dutton and the guys will be able to handle that pretty well.”

Dane said van Gisbergen would learn the ability to handle such situations by being in the team around Whincup and Lowndes. He said their experience and professionalism would also aid him out of the car in terms of his media and PR requirements, which will ramp up significantly at T8.

“He will see how the other guys in the team are handling it,” Dane said. “He will also see by sitting around and having deeper insight into how Jamie and Craig handle themselves around the team, in the team, in the car and so on.

“The two of them are two of the most mature people in the cars and around the cars in the pitlane…. A lot of the drivers don’t behave well around the car and in the car when things aren’t going right.

“I am sure Shane will observe and watch and learn from that.”

Dane said he had no doubt van Gisbergen will be a fast and keen learner.

“Shane has a burning desire to win and he knows that in order to win in this sport let alone this category you have got to go to to a top team with the right resources to employ the right people and have the right equipment at all times not just some times.

“And there are certain things that go with that, for instance having to do more sponsor work than you might do in a small team etcetera. And he recognises that, and he has been clear on that from the beginning.”

Dane says one area that van Gisbergen will contribute to the team from the start is is strong feedback ability that will strengthen and speed the development of the team’s Commodore.

Dane had a good look at van Gisbergen’s racing nous and brain via the regular briefing meetings he has attended at T8 because of Tekno’s customer deal.

“I think he is – from the point of view of what we see here – someone who has a very, very focussed racing brain,” Dane said. “He can recall what the car is doing at different stages of a day, of a session, of a race etcetera.

“Days later he can go through it and try and give as much feedback as possible, and basically provide a different set of data input points from Jamie and Craig, who are also providing different points.

“So having three top drivers can only enhance our operation from that point of view. And Shane has go an awful lot to give on that point.”