Driver’s Eye View: Phillip Island

In terms of a starting point, it’s hard to go past Scott McLaughlin. He’s had a frustrating run if you look at things like his engine problems in Tasmania, so to have a round like that – where he’s able to just dominate – those weekends are very special.

It’s almost like he couldn’t put a foot wrong if he tried. To set a lap record, two poles, two wins… you simply can’t ask for anything more.

It is worth noting that Phillip Island is a form circuit for those guys. Scott is obviously very in tune with the circuit, and he obviously loves it. And the team has always been on the radar. They have some issues with consistency, but they always have the potential to be hugely quick.

Are Scott and GRM title contenders? Well, they’ve got some very tough opposition, and they’ve got opposition that can potentially be more consistent across the season.

But based on outright speed, if they can carry that form over to other circuits then bloody oath they’re title contenders.

And Scott had a lot of good operators around him over the weekend. He didn’t luck into a win because other guys fell off, he was genuinely faster than everybody. He withstood pressure from the best in the business, and came out on top. So if you’re not taking him seriously as a title contender, then you may just look silly at the end of the season.

Whincup not holding back

The racing at the front was fantastic at Phillip Island. You can see that Jamie Whincup is pulling out everything he has at the moment. In both races you could see him drawing on every single bit of talent he has to try and get around Scott.

I don’t think Jamie’s car was quite as good as Scott’s on the weekend. But he drove the wheels off it anyway. And those little offs he had, to me, aren’t a sign that he’s not driving well, it’s a sign of how hard he is pushing.

Jamie is hungry. I think Shane van Gisbergen coming into the team has given him some work to do. It’s not that there’s a huge rivalry between the two, but Jamie is obviously pushing hard to show that he’s still top dog at Triple Eight.

Fine margins

Southern Loop was causing a few drivers headaches over the weekend. There was a couple of high-profile guys go off there, including Jamie Whincup and James Moffat.

It’s a tricky corner. You’re carrying a lot of speed through Turn 1, and using all of the road on the exit. If you’re not settled on the exit, and you’re carrying some attitude from Turn 1, it’s very, very easy to lock an inside tyre as you get on the brakes for Turn 2.

That’s what we saw happening on the weekend. Once you grab a front tyre and have to get off the brakes, there is no room for error.

The trickiest part of the corner is that the slowest point is a long way around the corner, and it crests in the middle. So the trick is to not wash off too much speed on the entry, and be able to slow the car into the corner. Almost three quarters of the way through the corner you want to rotate and get back on the gas.

You’re using every inch of grip available, and because of the crown in the middle the car tends to get light through that phase of the corner. There’s not a lot of room to get it right or wrong. You can easily under do it, and easily over do it.

Fabs gets inventive

One of the heart-in-mouth moments of the weekend was Fabian Coulthard passing Craig Lowndes at the final corner during Saturday’s race.

That was an interesting manoeuvre. Very brave. Even in normal circumstances that’s a difficult corner to negotiate because it’s seriously fast. And then when you’re trying to fit two guys through there together, that’s risky.

I’m sure from Fabian’s perspective, it was all very calculated and under control. But it was a different approach to passing at Phillip Island. Unless someone gets a terrible run out of the previous corner, that opportunity very rarely exists.

Obviously at that stage of the race Fabian had a better car than Craig. And he obviously got better drive on the run to the last corner. But he still didn’t have an overlap until he got right down to the apex of the corner. He basically shoved it down the inside, it’s not like they were side-by-side on the way into the corner.

He really just gave Lowndes no option but to surrender, and all he could do was gather it up and try not to lose too much time down the straight.

It was great racing to watch.