{"id":613598,"date":"2026-04-17T20:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T20:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/613598\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T20:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T20:10:16","slug":"supercars-winner-kai-allen-credits-former-ferrari-f1-engineer-riccardo-corte-bond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/613598\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars winner Kai Allen credits former Ferrari F1 engineer Riccardo Corte bond"},"content":{"rendered":"

SOME drivers spent their Easter weekend competing in the Bathurst 6 Hour. Others might\u2019ve enjoyed putting their feet up ahead of an intense New Zealand doubleheader.<\/p>\n

But Kai Allen<\/a>? He took it as an opportunity to forge a deeper bond with his new race engineer Riccardo Corte.<\/p>\n

Corte joined Grove Racing at the end of last year after a lengthy stint with Ferrari\u2019s Formula 1 program, including being Lewis Hamilton\u2019s performance engineer in the first half of 2025.<\/p>\n

There was always going to be a learning curve for the Italian, such is the unique nature of Supercars, but after just 10 races the Allen\/Corte combination has struck gold.<\/p>\n

Allen qualified fourth for the Friday race in Christchurch. Corte rolled the dice on a slightly early pitstop for only two tyres, which netted the #26 Penrite Mustang track position that Allen would not cede, despite heavy pressure from Brodie Kostecki<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Kai Allen takes the chequered flag. Pic: Supplied\/Mark Horsburgh<\/p>\n

For all that Allen achieved as a rookie last year, he had yet to taste victory. This was new territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot getting that first race win last year was a pretty tough pill to swallow with the speed we had and the results we had, and I set out on a bit of a hunt this year trying to get it,\u201d the 20-year-old explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sort of had a bit of a reality check after Sydney and the Grand Prix and you go \u2018just be patient, calm down a bit\u2019\u2026 I have just got to keep chipping away and like I said not rush the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Corte?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been really cool. Riccardo is a very funny character and he\u2019s definitely adapted to the Australian way very well,\u201d said Allen.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously coming from Ferrari, it\u2019s quite a different place over there, the way they operate is very different to us and especially Penrite Racing, so he has done really well.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the biggest thing for him and I was to bond with each other and to understand each other, and I think that\u2019s where Al (McVean), my engineer last year, we got towards the end of last year of basically going out there fighting with each other (in a positive sense).<\/p>\n

\u201cI think now it\u2019s getting really good where we\u2019re almost becoming really good mates \u2013 I actually took him down to Mount Gambier over Easter and sort of showed him where I grew up so that he understands my family, how I operate and where I come from.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually got him in a go-kart and got him driving, it was pretty funny. He is definitely not going to drive my Mustang because oh my god!<\/p>\n

\u201cJust that bond is what I\u2019m trying to build with him and I think we\u2019re slowly getting better and better and he\u2019s understanding the car more, the team more\u2026 this championship is so tough at the moment, it\u2019s ridiculous how close everyone is.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou might be good one day and the next day you\u2019re not, so between him, myself and the rest of the Penrite crew we have got to work hard tonight to go even better tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supercars will have back-to-back qualifying sessions this morning, the first of which starts 8:05am AEST (10:05am local).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOME drivers spent their Easter weekend competing in the Bathurst 6 Hour. Others might\u2019ve enjoyed putting their feet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-613598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}