Stanaway driven to despair by year from hell
It’s not just the bad results that have made this such a disappointing season for Supercars driver Richie Stanaway, it’s that he hasn’t had the chance to prove himself.
The 26-year-old heads to Pukekohe this weekend second to last in the championship among only full-time drivers.
He has finished in the top 10 just once this year, at Winton in New South Wales, and hasn’t finished higher than 18th in the last 12 races.
At the last round in Gold Coast a fortnight ago, he didn’t even race for a lap, with co-driver Steve Owen crashing out in Saturday’s race and Sunday’s race abandoned.
No wonder Stanaway’s enthusiasm about being a Supercars driver has disappeared. Some of his problems have been caused by bad luck, but it’s also been down to his Ford FG X Falcon not being anywhere quick enough.
‘‘It’s massively frustrating,’’ he said.
‘‘If the car can’t be in the top 10 [for pace], there are too many other good drivers out there that will get the most out of their car and be ahead of you.’’
At last year’s ITM Auckland SuperSprint, Stanaway turned up to talk to the media, although his contract with Tickford Racing wasn’t yet confirmed at that time.
However, it was hardly a secret that he’d be driving for the big budget team and he was fizzing about the prospect of being a full-time Supercars driver in 2018.
Stanaway always insisted that it would take him time to get up to speed and learn the circuits, but no one expected it to be as bad as this.
‘‘It’s been a bit of a disappointment. I was pretty excited and motivated 12 months ago about the idea of getting my opportunity,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s obviously not been as successful as I would have liked. But I guess failure equals feedback, so this year has been a failure and it’s about trying to figure out how to improve from that.’’
Remarkably, this weekend will be the first time Stanaway has raced in New Zealand since 2010, having spent most of his time based in Europe before heading back down under to race in Supercars.