McLaughlin has the power

A clever Christmas present has inspired young gun Scott McLaughlin to change his mindset heading into the 2016 V8 Supercars Championship.

Given ‘The Sheer Force of Will Power’ – a biography of the 2014 IndyCar Champion from Toowoomba – McLaughlin has chosen to approach this year differently and focus on one event at a time, rather than the championship.

“Moving forward for me as a driver, I’m taking this year a whole lot different – I’m not really putting any goals into it until I get into the season and see where we are at,” McLaughlin told v8supercars.com.au. 

“I’ve been reading a few books – I’ve actually been reading Will Power’s book and it’s quite interesting how he changed his mindset from the 2013 to the 2014 season, when he won the championship.

“It was quite cool how he just stopped thinking about the points, and took each race at a time. I think that’s what I’m going to try and do this year and not worry about points. I’m just going to take every race at a time, learn as much as I can and hopefully at the end of it, it works out alright … I think that’s a better, more positive attitude than worrying about points.”

McLaughlin starred at the Clipsal 500 in 2014 with an incredible battle with Jamie Whincup for second place during the Volvo’s first race meet – but last year he didn’t even start the first race with the S60 suffering an oil fire on the warm-up lap. 

The young driver had been hopeful and outspoken about winning the championship coming into last season but early mechanical failures and dramas for Wilson Security GRM saw him drop as low as 22nd in the points in Tasmania, before recovering to eighth overall and nabbing some podium finishes.

Penske driver Will Power was a guest at last year’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 and is someone McLaughlin admires. He’s no stranger to a V8 Supercar either, having raced at Bathurst in 2002 and as an international driver at the Gold Coast in 2010 and ’12. He revealed he was in discussion with LDM for a co-driver last year but was not available for all three enduros.

“I’ve always enjoyed seeing Will Power and what he was doing with his career I thought it was really cool,” McLaughlin said.

“When I got his book for Christmas, it was cool, I just read it, came across this [philosophy] and thought it was quite a good idea on how to run your championship and stuff like that – I thought it was quite smart.”

Describing last year’s results as character building on several occasions, the 22-year old believes his tough run is something that has ultimately helped him mature as a driver.

“I had a lot of positive thoughts going into last year and over the 2013 and 2014 seasons I never really had a massive downer, we always had pretty strong results,” he said.

“Even last year it was pretty positive – apart from the start of the year. If we hadn’t had that start we probably would’ve been in a very different position.

“But I agree, I think it was good for my career to have a bad result. Like I said, I’ve been very lucky with the results I’ve had, but to have a bad one and make it all work ... I think it was a good thing.

“Unfortunately I think it probably put us back a year in regards to development and stuff.”

The Wilson Security GRM team has been pushing on with new developments for this year, ahead of Monday’s pre-season test at Winton.

“The boys have been working hard, Krusty [engineer Richard Hollway] and the lads at GRM with drawings; the fabricators have been busy.

“It’s always good as a driver walking into the team and seeing these guys want it as much as you – it’s a really positive feeling.”

Good friend James Moffat will join the Volvo squad as McLaughlin’s teammate this year, with the Volvo S60s to be unveiled at the team’s open day this Saturday.

Fans are encouraged to head to the GRM workshop at  2/13 Kitchen Road, Dandenong South from 10am.