Dutton's advice for FPR
Jamie Whincup may have continued to build his lead over main title rival Mark Winterbottom at the last event, but heading into the Wilson Security Sandown 500, team boss Mark Dutton knows Red Bull can't write off their Ford foe yet.
'Dutto' - who has won five Championships engineering Whincup - has been front and centre in dramatic title fights, and knows that FPR still has plenty of opportunity to chip away at that 169-point lead.
"Winterbottom - although he had a poor round and not the best at QR either - you definitely can't discount him and he's still well within striking range," Dutton told v8supercars.com.au when asked about other competitors he has his eyes on.
Early in the season, Pepsi Max driver Winterbottom grabbed the top spot on the Championship table and stated he would do everything in his power to stay there. Whincup slipped as low as seventh, the furthest behind the points leader he had been since 2010 - the only year in the past six he was not crowned Champion.
But with the sheer force that is Red Bull Racing, he's rocketed back into the lead and it's Winterbottom now roughing it.
Dutton knows what it feels like to be in FPR's position - and he knows how to turn it all around.
"You just never give up," he said simply.
"You've just got to make sure you don't try and overreact and try and reinvent the wheel.
"You look at your previous success - they've had a lot this year - and say, hey, what's changed? What's not working for us, where did we make mistakes? Was it back luck, bad management, bad setups, where was the downturn in performance?
"Everything in this game is about understanding - the more you understand the better chance you have of repeating good performances and learning from the bad to try and make sure they're minimised.
"You're always going to have one dud round... learning what doesn't work is almost as important as learning what does work because if you know what doesn't work, you can stay away."
And it's not just FPR he thinks will power on strong. 'Dutto' has predicted that five cars could still all be in the fight for the Championship at the end of the year, unable to scratch any of the quality performers of 2014 off the list.
"Hopefully we can - as stressful as it is for us - have both Jamie and Craig (Lowndes) fighting for it at the end and put our opposition behind us," Dutton said.
"But unfortunately I don't think that will be this year. I think it will be a three, four, probably even five way battle all the way to the end. Hopefully I'll be proved wrong, but we'll see how we go."
Dubbing Lowndes "Mr Endurance" he felt the #888 driver would be one to watch across the Wilson Security Sandown 500, Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 and Castrol EDGE Gold Coast 600. He is 213 points behind Whincup.
"He can bag a whole lot of points at this time of year and then fly home really strongly," Dutton said.
"Obviously HRT are coming along well with Courtney, he's scoring some good points and doing a good job ... Coulthard is really good, and TEKNO are a fantastic outfit. They're a good race team, they don't try and overcomplicate things with building too much and they're a customer of ours, so they like buying our parts and just trying to do a better job at the race meeting.
"It was interesting at Sydney Motorsport Park, you saw them winning two races in the wet - and that's not just because Gizzy (Shane van Gisbergen) is excellent in the wet. There's some of that, but they did it right, they had a good car. It's not all driver in the wet - it is a bigger proportion, but you don't do it without the car underneath you."
Pleased with Tuesday's test at Morgan Park, heading into the Pirtek Enduro Cup there are some unknowns with the new-for-2014 pairing of Lowndes and Steven Richards - but no cause for concern.
"For Richo and Craig, Sandown will be the first one where we test under race conditions, do they like the same thing in the car, how does it all work together. We've got no reason to question or to be worried they don't like the same thing and ask for the same thing, so we're definitely happy with the choice with Richo.
"Jamie and PD are very strong because, both talented drivers obviously, but also third season together, so that's fantastic for the continuity there.
"So likewise can't wait for Sandown it, should be good."
The Wilson Security Sandown 500 is the first time all 50 drivers will be contesting an event, with both playing a role in separate qualifying races on Saturday, before sharing the V8 Supercars on Sunday across the 500km.
