Fabian Coulthard has revealed he is leaving Brad Jones Racing at the end of the 2015 V8 Supercars season.
The Freightliner racer, who sits fifth in the Championship, said on Inside Supercars this evening that he’d told the team he would not be there in 2016.
He also confirmed reports his engineer Phil Keed was shifting to DJR Team Penske were accurate.
Coulthard, 33, said he was still weighing up options for ’16, though a move to DJR Team Penske has been talked about for the past few months in the media.
“I haven’t signed anything yet – obviously I haven’t formalised anything. I’ve let BJR know that I am going to move on but … I haven’t formalised anything as yet,” Coulthard said on Inside Supercars today.
“I have to evaluate everything and see what works best and what fits in the most and what I’m after.”
Having been with BJR since 2012, Coulthard recorded his career best Championship finish with the team and Keed – sixth place – in ’13.
Keed has been engineering Coulthard these past three seasons and together they have earned five race wins.
Coulthard’s learning of Keed leaving the team for DJR Team Penske was quite extraordinary.
“Believe it or not, I was at Sandown,” Coulthard began.
“I had a blood nose that day and Kim [Jones, team boss] has walked into the truck … I had tissues hanging out my nose and what have you, and he said, ‘is this for stealing Phil, did someone punch you in the nose?’.
“I was genuinely shocked. I had no idea Phil was going – I knew he’d been approached by Triple Eight and Penske – but to find out that way was pretty unique.”
Coulthard was hopeful the relationship with Keed and the team would remain as is for the rest of the season as he looks for a strong finish in the Championship and a Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 win after recording the fastest lap around the Mountain last year.
“The day to day relationships within the team, hopefully nothing changes – we’ve got a job to do and that’s to do the best job I can in the Freightliner Commodore for the remainder of the year and we’ll go about the rest of it later on.”
Coulthard said he did not have a timeline in mind to complete his own deal for 2016 and beyond, and was focused on delivering for BJR and Freightliner this season while in the #14 Commodore.
“I’ve been in negotiations with Brad since December last year so I’m sort of used to this negotiation thing going on in the background. So I’m just going on and doing the best job I can.”
The segment on Inside Supercars revealed that hiring Keed was part of a recruitment push for DJR Team Penske, with TEKNO boss Steve Hallam also linked to a move.
