PODCAST: Stanaway – That sort of really broke me!

Supercars enigma Richie Stanaway said it ‘broke’ him when he was blocked by Grove Racing last year from looking at his own data and excluded from setting up his car.

“I was basically just told that I have to just drive the car and say what it does in terms of balance but I’m not allowed to be involved in anything about what’s actually on the car and that sort of really broke me,” he told Race for the Championship podcast’s Allan Edwards.

The Kiwi also talked about his successful European open-wheeler career, and expressed his frustration of not being able to get his head around the setup of a touring car despite being a master of car dynamics in his open-wheeler days.

“I mean I feel like there was a bit of a gap between where I was and where I needed to be on the understanding and set up of a touring car and knowing what I want from it… when I raced in an open wheelers one of my strengths was on the technical side,” he said.

“I knew exactly what I wanted from my car and I could work very well with my engineer. Ever since I came to supercars, I’ve never probably got up to that level that I wanted to be at and then I’m racing against guys like Will Brown, Brodie Kostecki, Cam Waters and Chaz Mostert, who are all on a very high level when it comes to understanding the car and knowing what setup changes they like.”

However, Stanaway now believes he has everything he needs to get to the pointy end of the Supercars field after being thrown what many believe is the Kiwi’s last lifeline in the category with PremiAir Racing. And, due to PremiAir’s relationship with Triple Eight, he not only has access to his own data and that of his teammate, James Golding, but also to the information from the Red Bull boys.

“The ingredients are there,” he said.

“It’s quite funny because it’s now the opposite scenario (to 2024) and I’ve got all of that information… it’s almost like too much information.”

Stanaway is particularly enjoying his partnership with renowned engineer Ludo Lacroix.

“He’s got a lot of experience and has achieved a lot so it’s a privilege for me really to have someone like Ludo in my corner,” Stanaway said.

“I’ve seen a lot of TV footage of him… when you’re getting poles and winning races and the camera cuts to the garage and he’s all excited about it. There has been a lot of work put in to get those results and now I’ve got him on my car so I can’t really ask for much more than that.”