Winterbottom: Time to deliver after Team 18 overhaul
Mark Winterbottom pumped for 2024 after off-season spree
Team 18 welcomes new Team Principal, Technical Director
Winterbottom also enters 2024 with new engineer
Mark Winterbottom says its time to deliver at Team 18 after an off-season headlined by key recruitments.
Charlie Schwerkolt’s team heads into 2024 with a star recruit in David Reynolds, new Team Principal in Adrian Burgess, and Technical Director in Dr Geoffrey Slater.
Reynolds, Burgess and Slater all boast impressive pedigree, with former Supercars motorsport boss Burgess a championship- and Bathurst-winning Team Principal.
Slater, meanwhile, won the Bathurst 1000 and Bathurst 12 Hour in 2016, while veteran driver Reynolds needs little introduction.
For Winterbottom, who enters his sixth season with Team 18, the time is now to make a statement to the rest of the Supercars field.
“I think this is the biggest change Team 18 has had in the whole time I've been here,” said 2015 Supercars champion, who welcomes Som Sharma as his new engineer.
"It's been a massive off-season, our engineering department has had a big overhaul and we've got a lot of depth, which is really good.
"I think everyone's got a point of difference and on the days we're fast, we'll all work together and on the days we're struggling, that's when a point of difference will be a positive strength. We've now also got a Technical Director and from there it stems down to hopefully deliver the right results.
“This is my sixth season at Team 18 now and I genuinely feel it's the best we've been in that department. Looking at the workshop as well, the depth we've got there has also increased so as a driver it's now time to deliver. I feel like we're in good shape and results on track will do the talking.”
Winterbottom broke through in Darwin last June for Team 18’s first win, but the team struggled for consistency overall.
Come 2024, and the team has already hit the ground running, with Team 18 pulling off a car swap at last weekend’s test day as it chases greater understanding of its Chevrolet Camaros.
Having accrued crucial data on what proved a “faultless” test day, Winterbottom is now determined to make it all count come the season-opening Thrifty Bathurst 500 next weekend.
“The test day felt like it was taking forever to come, but it finally arrived, which was great. 2024 feels really good,” he said after the test day.
"We got through a really good program. Obviously with new people comes new ideas, so for the first time in many, we ran out of time, not out of ideas.
"I think we made good gains in areas and we made losses and you put that all together and go over all the data.
“We've got a lot to look at, but all in all a great day, It was good to see Dave back and he had a great day too. Together, we’ve got good data, we’ve got a great group of guys, our cars were faultless, so now we’ve just got to make them fast for Bathurst."
Winterbottom and Reynolds will commence their 2024 campaigns at the Thrifty Bathurst 500 on February 23-25. Tickets are on sale now.
