SUPERCARS legend Mark Skaife has declared fuel-saving racing is not a good product, but says the practice is nothing new for the category.
Cam Waters was vocal on Sunday night in Townsville about the tendency for fuel churn races to force drivers to conserve rather than attack, and that certainly was the case for him in Race 22 as he had to give up on chasing second place merely to ensure he saw the chequered flag.
“It’s a pretty shit way to go racing,” said the Tickford Racing star.
Supercars’ move this season to a new 100 percent renewable fuel blend has had a side effect of increased consumption rates, which in turn has seen championship powerbrokers slightly reduce lap counts for longer duration races.
That has not prevented fuel-saving being a factor at times, as even without encountering issues, teams tend to put the bare minimum fuel in, with the idea being that track position is king and drivers can just manage any deficit via lifting-and-coasting.
Anton De Pasquale makes a stop for fuel and tyres. Pic: Ross Gibb
Two potential solutions could be to bring back the fuel drop rule – which might necessitate a return to using expensive refuelling towers, but could force teams to actually put enough fuel onboard – or to allow only two rattle guns for tyre changes rather than four, so that there is a longer period of time for refuelling to take place.
“There’s a few aspects to this,” Skaife said on MotorRacing 360.
“The first part I totally agree with him (Waters): if we’re in fuel-saving mode, you’re not sprinting and we’re not actually racing in the way or the manner that we want to go about it.
“The little piece that’s a bit of a difficult part of the puzzle is the teams are always trying to optimise their performance. And what they’re doing right now is because there’s a disparity between putting four tyres on and the churn going in, as soon as the four tyres are on, they’re dropping it and sending it and then making the driver live with the fuel issue.
“Now it was worse for Cam because he didn’t get enough fuel, even under that scenario, so he kind of had a double-whammy effect and that’s why he was dark with the world.
“I think the bit that is now really interesting is… I mean, seriously this is not new news. In 1995 we were going to do one less stop at Bathurst because we were going to fuel-save the whole day.
“So fuel-saving racing has been out there in the ether forever.
“But it’s not what we want, I don’t think.”
Two more Sprint Cup rounds are to come at Perth and Ipswich before refuelling towers return for the enduros and finals.
