Frosty's thoughts on Phillip Island

Understeer a continued problem

DRIVERS’ VIEW
No. 200 The Bottle-O Ford Falcon FG X
Mark Winterbottom
“I’m excited to get back into the car after a tough last round in Tassie. We had all been working hard to make sure we get back up to the front. It’s been a productive couple weeks figuring out what we need to do to improve. The team have put in long days to get us where we think we need to be, and I’m looking forward to getting out there and see how our preparation pays off.”On 200th career Supercars round: “It’s good to celebrate 200 rounds in this game. I’ve spent most of my career here and am proud of what the team and I have achieved in that time, but I think there’s plenty more to come. I feel like I’m as fit as ever and driving as well as ever, so there’s no reason we can’t have more success. It’d be great to come out of this weekend with something to smile about, so we’ll go out and give it a crack.” 

Mark Winterbottom
Practice 1: 16th, 1m31.71s
Practice 2: 4th, 1m30.54s
“To be fourth, I’m kind of surprised given the way the car felt. I can feel where we’re weak, but it gives us something to work with to make it better. Credit to everybody at the team. We had a really bad last round, but we’re not a team that gives up. We get back up and have a crack. Two weeks is a short time, but they’ve done a lot of work. I’m happy with the result from today, I can feel where the car is weak, but we need to make sure we don’t chase too much, but all in all a good day.” 

Mark Winterbottom
Race 9 Start: 11th, 1m30.51s
Race 9 Finish: 13th 
“We struggled but the car got better as the stints went on, which is a little weird here, having people coming back to you, but we didn’t have the car quite good enough to race. When you got behind somebody it really took the aero away from the front, so it was a struggle to race guys. The first lap put me a lot further back than I should have been, but when you’re in the pack you want to have a crack. We just have to qualify better on these kinds of tracks and dictate our own real estate. Tough day, frustrating. 

Mark Winterbottom
Race 10 Start: 10th, 1m30.67s
Race 10 Finish: 15th 
“The car just wasn’t quick enough. We’ve got lots of understeer, and it’d ruin both front tyres, I’m honestly lucky to finish the race with the amount of understeer we had. The right front tyre was damaged on both sets, and we’d end up dropping a second or two a lap to the leaders. We thought we had made some gains but we’ve seemed to have lost them again. We’ll have a rethink this week and see what we can come up with for Perth, but it’s a frustrating day to say the least.”