Fabian Coulthard believes the DJR Team Penske Ford Falcon FG X is not hugely different to his Holden Commodore from last year.
The Kiwi driver – who won a race at the season opening Clipsal 500 last year with Brad Jones Racing – tested the FG X for the first time last week.
He believes adapting to the car will not be a big challenge – the hardest thing for the squad will be ensuring all the new staff members are on the same page.
“It wasn’t a hell of a lot different,” Coulthard said when comparing the new FG X to his Brad Jones Racing VF Commodore.
“Everyone speculates that the [FG X] aero package is fantastic, and I’m sure it’s ok, but the change and the differences is very minimal.”
The team has expanded for 2016 and along with Coulthard and his engineer Phil Keed, has recruited a number of new people for this year’s assault on the Championship.
The test day was critical for them to learn what they’re working with this season.
“For us it was quite important – for Phil and I we had to understand what makes the Falcon tick and obviously we had to explore both sides of the spectrum,” Coulthard explained.
“[We had to] do everything – try to cover all the different kinds of setups we’ll potentially use throughout the year and understand how the car responds. So that was very important for us.… I think if we can adopt some of the car I drove last year and some of the strengths of this car and create one, we’ll be in a better position.”
The team has expectations of building on last year’s progress, which saw teammate Scott Pye finish on the podium in New Zealand in November. But Coulthard revealed he spoke with motorsport heavyweight Roger Penske, and the boss is aware it may take some time to make it all the way.
“I gave up a good car last year and Roger said to me, ‘thanks for coming on-board, I understand there’s going to be a learning phase to help build the team up’. I think that in itself is pretty special.
“It’s going to be a challenge to try and get this car to perform to its maximum, but I feel like they’ve got a good foundation and good building blocks from last year.
“If we can build on that from a top five to top eight car come Clipsal, I think come the end of the year we should be in with a reasonable shot.”
Last year at the Clipsal 500 Marcos Ambrose was behind the wheel for DJR Team Penske, and was able to finish with two 16 places, a 12th and a spot in the Top 10 Shootout on Sunday.
A positive result this time around will mean a lot to Coulthard.
“We’ve got a lot of new people within the team so we have to get all those guys working well – we need to maximise our strengths and finish Clipsal with a reasonable result to set up our year,” he said.
“So it’s going to be tough but it’s going to be on the other side of the foot a challenge. I’m looking forward to working with the guys, getting everyone involved and giving it the best possible shot we can do.”
He and teammate Pye are getting along well and hope to push one anther on track and ultimately improve DJR Team Penske together.
“We’ve got a few inside jokes, we mock each other a little bit, but it’s all healthy,” Coulthard said of his teammate.
“It’s good, we have a good laugh and a joke, but we hop in the car and it’s all serious, so it’s a good balance.”
Coulthard left the Clipsal 500 second in the Championship last year after his win on Saturday.
