Kiwi Supercars ace Fabian Coulthard is confident his uncharacteristically woeful performance last time out at Sydney Motorsport Park won’t repeat itself this weekend when the #12 DJR Mustang rolls out for the Truck Assist Sydney SuperSprint.
Coulthard’s best result over the three races in Supercars first resumption round after the pandemic-induced break was 10th, with a 15th and DNF in the following races.
After the difficult weekend, the 37-year-old admitted the primary cause of his struggles was understeer but the condensed schedule made finding a quick fix impossible.
This weekend sees the Supercars paddock stage its second successive round from the New South Wales venue as a part of a recently revised championship calendar.
But Coulthard remains adamant grounds have since been made in unlocking new setup ideas ahead of this weekend’s event that should place him closer to his teammate towards the pointy end of the grid.
“We had good qualifying pace [last round], but struggled in the races a little bit,” Coulthard told motorsport.com.
“But [there has been] lots of good thoughts within the organisation for what we can do to improve and make our cars better.
“Obviously in between events we’ve had a lot of time to go over a few things, look at the data and stuff like that, so I think going back this time will be a different story.
“It’s very rare to go back to a track back-to-back and have the ability to see if the things you think worked actually worked, so I’m pretty excited, pretty motivated to get back there.
“Obviously it is not only for this event but it sounds like we are going to be back at Sydney Motorsport Park again later in the year so it’s all-important stuff to get on top of, but I’m confident to go back there that it will be a different story.”
Coulthard sits a disappointing 13th in the diver standings while his teammate Scott McLaughlin resides at the head of the points tally.
Consequently, Coulthard’s lacklustre 2020 campaign has meant DJR Team Penske have fallen behind pitlane rivals Red Bull HRT in the Teams championship.
He will have two practice sessions on Saturday to get back up to speed before qualifying and the Top-15 shootout. Three races make up this weekend’s programme with the first event being staged under lights and gets underway from 8.25 pm NZT.