McLaughlin seeks to consolidate lead

Scott McLaughlin is looking to consolidate his current lead in the 2018 Australian Supercars Championship which heads to Townsville this weekend for races 17-18 of the season.

McLaughlin has a healthy 161-point lead from fellow Kiwi driver Shane van Gisbergen as the series moves into the second half of the season.

Close behind van Gisbergen are David Reynolds, Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup. Whincup, the current Supercars champion, has had the most wins (9) of any driver in the ten-year history of competing in Townsville. Gaining points now for McLaughlin is a priority as last season he appeared to be on track to win the title but faltered at the Bathurst 1000 race where double points were on offer. This allowed Whincup to put himself in a position to challenge for the title with only a few races remaining. This threat may now come from van Gisbergen.

Hartley starts at Silverstone Silverstone hosts this weekend’s British Grand Prix, regarded as the oldest Formula One race. This is because back in 1950 it was the first event of the inaugural season. Along with the Italian GP, these are the only two Grand Prix that have been raced every season since. It’s ironic that it is an Italian manufacturer that has been the most successful in the history of the British Grand Prix with Ferrari taking their first win in 1951.

Since then Ferrari has won 15 times. Kiwi Brendon Hartley lines up for Italian based Scuderia Toro Rosso, looking to improve after retiring from the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend. Most pundits are saying that this season he is doing the ‘development’ work for Red Bull, Toro Rosso’s sister team.

Red Bull Racing will change from Renault to Honda powered engines for 2019.

With Toro Rosso already having Honda engines, continual development and understanding of the chassis/engine combination is paramount. Hartley gained a very good reputation as a simulator driver for the Mercedes F1 team (2012-13), a talent that will be used to good advantage by his current F1 team. While Hartley’s fan base may want to see him in ‘the points’, the bigger picture is that for Red Bull Racing the change to Honda engines is a major move and they need to get it right.

Along with Mercedes and Ferrari they are the current winning teams this season. Both their drivers, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, will want as much assurance as possible that they can continue winning next season.

Benjamin Carrell is the online editor of talkmotorsport.co.nz