Edwards: Driver Change Won't Change Results
Team boss Tim Edwards believes young talent Chaz Mostert will amply fill the shoes of last year’s third-placed Will Davison.
After spending most of last season at Dick Johnson Racing, Mostert steps up to Ford Pepsi Max Crew for 2014 and is expected to maintain the team’s strong form.
“I don’t think the change from Will (Davison) to Chaz will be impacting our results at all,” team boss Tim Edwards told v8supercars.com.au ahead of tonight's team launch.
“Chaz, now having three quarters of a full-time season under his belt, we’re relatively optimistic our performances at the end of last year will continue... (He) was on-track within spitting distance of Will in the last race of the season.”
The FPR pairing of Davison and Mark Winterbottom last year finished third and fourth in the Drivers’ Championship, and second in the teams’ Championship – feats Edwards obviously wants to improve on this time around.
“Our expectation is actually first, we’re not setting our expectations at second! We know we’ve got fast cars, we’ve got two fast drivers. Last year I’d say luck wasn’t on our side.”
While still fresh in V8 Supercars, 21-year old Mostert had a stellar first season with DJR – which has a technical alliance with FPR – scoring his breakout win at Queensland Raceway, ahead of now-teammate Winterbottom, and Davison.
And though some may see this season’s start as a challenge, given Mostert didn’t race at the first three events last year (as well as the Formula One Australian Grand Prix), that’s not how the young gun sees it.
“I still raced in Adelaide in Development Series and we were reasonably quick,” Mostert told v8supercars.com.au.
“Obviously that’s a little bit different. But saying that, a lot of teams with the new cars and some of the problems they had, they didn’t really get to run properly at those tracks anyway.
“By the time I came in at Perth a lot of those problems were gone – I felt like Perth was the actual start of the series for most teams.”
Mostert is excited, rather than fazed, to experience some new circuits.
“It’s cool to go to tracks you haven’t really raced a main series race at … I’m just excited to be with a new team. There’s a big data bank from last year and they had some strong results at those first three rounds, so hopefully that can give me the step up to stay in that top 10.”
The 21-year old rising star was easy-going about the year ahead and said he and the team both have similar goals for 2014.
“They’ve made it pretty clear they just want me to see how I go, it’s my first year with them. They obviously want strong results – every team in V8 Supercars wants strong results, because that’s the one thing you’re there to do, try and win races. Saying that, they’re going to give me the time to learn off Frosty. That’s going to be really cool in my book!”
Mostert heads into the season with an open mind, and knows the value of consistent racing. Stay out of trouble, and you could just stay in the points race.
“It’s pretty hard to take it to Triple Eight, but I think (through) the year, you keep banking points and finish races, anything’s possible.
“I’m sure Frosty’s going to do his job and for me to do mine I’ll have to push pretty hard, so we’ll just see how it goes and you never know.
“You never know what could happen this year, it’s exciting thinking about it and all the possible outcomes.
“But first we’ve got to get to Adelaide and start the Championship there.”
A Fan Poll that ran on v8supercars.com.au recently asked whether FPR could win the Championship in 2014, was sitting dead on 50/50 when we spoke to Edwards. The team boss was encouraged by the support, particularly given the V8 Supercar fan group wouldn’t all be Ford or FPR supporters.
He described FPR as quietly optimistic.
“We’re not saying too much at the moment – we’re quietly going about our business and putting our plans in place. We don’t need to be shouting about what we’re up to, which is probably why we haven’t been saying too much at the moment. We are just going about our business and quietly optimistic.
“Talk to any of the team principals in the pit lane now, they’ll all be optimistic!”
FPR is set to unveil all four cars tonight, ahead of the sydney.com V8 Supercars Test Day on Saturday. See a sneak peek here.
The day is free for fans to attend and is the first time to see all 25 V8 Supercars in the flesh, with their new colours.
Season opener the Clipsal 500 follows from February 27 to March 2 in Adelaide. The marquee event boasts a strong off-track line-up with megastar Keith Urban headlining the evening concerts, and fascinating racing set to unfold with a new format and twilight racing on the concrete-lined street track.
