D'Albertos Working Hard for Deals
Tony D’Alberto and father Al are pushing hard to nail down the 2014 commercial arrangements of their family-owned V8 Supercars team as quickly as possible.
With HIFLEX stepping down as naming rights sponsor the D’Albertos are conscious of the inevitable question marks about their future in the Championship.
They know getting their deals done sooner rather than later will shut that speculation down and allow them and their small crew to attack 2014 without distraction.
The trouble, as team owner Al D’Alberto acknowledges, is getting everything sorted out commercially doesn’t always happen quickly.
“A lot of our deals unfortunately get done at the last minute,” he told v8supercars.com.au. “I would love to be in a position where we could do a deal now and prepare ourselves more professionally for next year.
“A multi-year deal would mean we can start focussing on the job of marketing our client’s products.”
The D’Albertos knew for some time HiFlex would be cutting back in 2014 and have been in negotiations with potential new partners.
“We are progressing talks with a lot of people and that is all going down the right path,” said Tony. “We are working pretty hard at it that’s for sure.”
Added Al: “It is tough but it is not like we haven’t been in this situation before and sorted something out.”
After two seasons running FPR Ford Falcons, the D’Alberto’s realigned with Walkinshaw Racing in 2013 for the new Car of the Future era. They admit the swap over to the category’s new technical basis has strained the finances.
“It’s been hard for all the teams, because if you look at it not only do you have to buy new cars you have to buy spares and then you are constantly developing and that adds to the burden,” explained Al.
On-track Tony D’Alberto Racing has had a year of highs and lows. Top 10 runs at Townsville, Winton and the Gold Coast for the HiFlex Holden Commodore VF have been punctuated by component failures beyond its control at other rounds including the high profile Wilson Security Sandown 500 and the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.
Despite the issues, the 2007 development series champion runs 16th in the Championship. The 27-year old’s previous best season was 2010 when he finished 20th.
Al says the best of the results – front row qualifying and fourth at Winton and second row qualifying and fourth on the Gold Coast prove just how much potential the team has.
“I challenge anyone to do what we have done with the budget we have had and be running in the top 10 as regularly as we have been,” he said.
“We as a team are a great opportunity to get onboard because … it is not just the driver, it’s the whole team that makes it work, and we have a pretty good structure and we have some good guys working for us.”
One potential change the D’Albertos are considering is expanding to a two car operation out of their Knoxfield (Victoria) facility.
“My theory is if I can buddy up with another single car team and they are responsible for their costs and we are responsible for ours then there are a lot of overheads we can share between those two teams,” explained Al D’Alberto.
“Currently we have overheads but are absorbing them all within one team. So that alone would reduce our running costs.
“We have the facility and we can go to a two car team just like that. We can supply equipment, we can do the whole lot. This is not a model where we charge someone to run a car for them, this is a model where we share overheads to reduce our running costs.”
