Who will be Scott McLaughlin’s teammate in the new Volvo factory V8 Supercar team in 2014?
That was the driver market question that emerged from a Volvo presentation in the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 paddock this morning.
The young Kiwi, who is starring in his rookie championship season, has already been confirmed to make the transition from Holden Commodore VF to Volvo S60 along with Fujitsu Garry Rogers Motorsport from next season.
He was part of this morning’s function, but his current teammate Alex Premat was nowhere to be seen.
Volvo Car Australia managing director Matt Braid explained why.
“Today is really about confirming Scott as our first Volvo Polestar Racing Team driver for next year. Obviously he made an announcement he was secure in his future a month or so ago but today was the first chance we officially had to welcome him to the Volvo fold.
“The second driver we are discussing at the moment and who that could be. Alex is definitely in consideration for that. Obviously we are weighing that up at the moment.”
GRM team owner Garry Rogers was typically vague about the driver situation for 2014.
“We are not even worried about that until the end of the year,” he told v8supercars.com.au. “We are talking about our program here at Bathurst.
“As far as I am concerned Scott McLaughlin is signed up and done and Alex is on a performance based contract and at the moment is going alright.”
Frenchman Premat joined the GRM squad in 2012 and has shown flashes of speed. But he has also tallied up a sizeable damage bill, something that always annoys the dollar conscious Rogers.
Potential pilots for the second Volvo seat could include Jack Perkins – a Rogers favourite who is co-driving with McLaughlin in the PIRTEK Enduro Cup – and Walkinshaw Racing refugee Nick Percat.
High priced Ford star Will Davison is not believed to be in the frame. It is understood he will decide next week between re-signing at Ford Performance Racing or swapping to Erebus Motorsport V8 from 2014.
This morning’s Volvo presentation was in a display set up in the paddock featuring the limited edition S60 Polestar model that is now on-sale in Australia.
Along with Braid, Rogers and McLaughlin, Volvo’s global powertrain and motorsport boss Derek Crabb and Polestar Racing’s Christian Dahl were present today. Polestar is primarily involved in developing the B8444S Volvo engine for the V8 Supercar program.
Dahl said the 60-degree V8 was on-track for its first dyno run in mid-December.
