The 2013 International V8 Supercars Championship has seen the introduction of the new technical regulations, which has been dubbed ‘Car of the Future’. It has also seen the arrival of two manufacturers.
They are Nissan (factory-backed), who have taken over Kelly Racing (customer deal with Holden), and Mercedes-Benz, who have signed a customer deal with Erebus Motorsport, who have taken over Stone Brothers Racing (factory-backed deal with Ford).
Both Nissan Motorsport, and Erebus Motorsport have experienced ups, and downs throughout this season so far.
They have also questioned the ‘parity’ of the championship, more recently in terms of fuel consumption, which has divided pit lane.
So, let’s look at the two teams more closely, starting with Nissan Motorsport.
Nissan Motorsport have on balance been very good so far this season. In particular, the people based at the team factory in Braeside in Melbourne have done an extremely good job in terms of the aerodynamic package for the car.
However, the problems for Nissan Motorsport in terms of their competitiveness stems from the engine, which lacks outright power compared with Holden, Ford and Mercedes-Benz.
This is the fault of Nissan’s performance arm, Nismo. They have failed miserably so far in their quest of making the Altima competitive, and have only just started to do their job in the way it should have been done all along.
I am sure Nissan and Nismo will make the car, and more importantly the engine much more competitive, and level with the other engines on the grid, and thus be in contention for race wins, and maybe a championship challenge.
In terms of the drivers, all four drivers Rick Kelly, Todd Kelly, James Moffat and Michael Caruso have been pretty even in terms of ultimate speed, although Caruso and Todd (Kelly) have had reliability issues that have left them lower in the championship standings compared to their teammates.
I cannot see any changes to their driver line-up for 2014.
Erebus Motorsport have had a challenging start to their time in V8 Supercars.
Although the team have done an exceptional job given the amount of time they had from the announcement date of the project to the first event of the season in Adelaide, they have struggled in making the car consistently competitive.
In the early part of the season, they have struggled with both engine and aerodynamic performance, although they have got on top of their engine performance quite early into the process.
However, their main struggle has been aerodynamic performance. Erebus Motorsport have struggled to get their car right in terms of handling, which was exacerbated on tracks such as the Circuit of the Americas, where on most of the track, you have to constantly turn the car.
As well as this, there have been some inconsistencies in their handling performance, something they need to work on to be competitive.
I am sure they will be competitive in 2014, maybe not at the very front, but very competitive that is for sure.
In terms of their drivers, Tim Slade and Lee Holdsworth have been up and down mentally during the season.
At the beginning of the season, Holdsworth was handling the situation better than Slade, but in the middle of the season, Slade was doing much better than Holdsworth.
They know both seem more confident in the car, and you can expect some good results for the rest of the season from them.
In terms of Maro Engel, he has done a solid job considering the circumstances, and terms of his ultimate speed, he is on a very similar pace compared with Alexandre Premat.
He should remain with the team next year, same with Holdsworth and it will be interesting to see who replaces Slade, who is heading to the Holden Racing Team/Walkinshaw Racing to replace the retiring Russell Ingall next year.
At least there are plenty of quality drivers who want that seat, supporting the team’s growing presence in the sport.
Looking ahead to Bathurst, both Nissan Motorsport and Erebus Motorsport should be competitive.
Nissan should be very fast in Sector 2, but will lose time in Sector 1 and Sector 3. Erebus may have a tougher time in Sector 2, but will more or less match the pace-setting cars in the first and third sectors.
Both teams should be close to the Top 10 at the very least.
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