ATTENTION to detail and work ethic are the traits which drove Jamie Whincup to unparalleled heights in Supercars, according to his long-time former engineer David Cauchi.
Whincup’s record tallies of seven championships, 56 round wins, 125 race wins, 240 podiums and 92 pole positions all will stand for many years to come.
He was especially prolific in the seven-year stretch encompassing seasons 2008-14, during which time he only once failed to win the title (and by a narrow margin on that occasion).
Nowadays he is Triple Eight’s co-owner, team principal and managing director.
While his Supercars racing days are officially over, he will hop behind the wheel of a Gen3 Ford Mustang this coming weekend at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
But back to what made him so good. It’s a topic Cauchi touched on via the V8 Sleuth Podcast powered by Parramatta Toyota.
“It’s just everything in the background: his attention to detail and his work ethic. I guess that’s what everyone doesn’t see,” said Cauchi.
“The outside world just sees us at the racetrack, they don’t see the work that we put in back at the factory and what we go through, the debriefs, the analysis, the honest conversations, the hard conversations. All that stuff happens behind closed doors in office factories and boardrooms.
“I guess that’s what I learnt from Jamie – his preparation and attention to detail.
“I say, even these days, 80 to 85 percent is already won or lost before you turn up to the race.
“Once you’ve turned up, it’s really just about execution at that point. If you haven’t prepared, if you haven’t done your homework, if the car’s set-up is in the wrong window, it’s very hard to then turn that into a win. Sometimes you do, it’s not impossible, but again that’s what we became very good at.
“The driver can set the tone for a lot of the culture as well and I think Jamie certainly take a lot of responsibility for the attention to detail and the preparation that became a big part of our culture.
“He led by example.”
Cauchi and Whincup remain good friends, even after their professional paths diverged.
Cauchi in fact was Whincup’s counterpart during a four-year stint (2022-25) as Grove Racing team principal, but he maintains a high opinion of ‘JDub’ and is adamant that his level of performance went largely unappreciated.
“If Jamie was doing that in Formula 1 for example, as an Australian racing in Formula 1, he would have been a national hero, we would have knighted him,” he said.
“But in Supercars, the dominance sometimes wasn’t accepted.”
Having moved back to Queensland, Cauchi made a cameo return to the racing arena in GT4 Australia’s Ipswich round last month but has shown no signs of lobbing back in the Supercars paddock just yet.
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