![\"Allen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MH6_1384.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAllen celebrates with the team including Corte, far left. Image; Supplied <\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAllen celebrates with the team including Corte, far left. Image; Supplied <\/p>\n
The Italian was a left-field recruit for Grove Racing at the end of 2025 following his split with the Ferrari Formula 1 team, where he\u2019d worked with Lewis Hamilton.<\/p>\n
Corte had been eager for a new adventure and, after being put in touch with Brenton Grove through a mutual connection, made the commitment to move Down Under.<\/p>\n
The engineering vacancy on Allen\u2019s car had come up as the team promoted Alistair McVean into a new head of performance role.<\/p>\n
While being paired with a first-time Supercars engineer could have stunted Allen\u2019s second-season progress, it\u2019s now yielded a well-earned first win.<\/p>\n
\u201cRiccardo\u2019s a very funny character and he\u2019s definitely adapted to the Australian way very well,\u201d said Allen in the aftermath of his Friday triumph.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously coming from Ferrari, it\u2019s quite a different place over there, the way they operate, it\u2019s very different to us, especially Penrite Racing, so he\u2019s done really well, I think.<\/p>\n
![\"Kai](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Kai-Allen-Ruapuna.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Kai Allen racing to victory at Ruapuna. Image: InSyde Media<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing for him and I was to bond with each other and to understand, not the language, but to understand each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s where Al and I got towards the end of the year, and I think now it\u2019s getting really good [with Corte], we\u2019re becoming really good mates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen revealed he had taken Corte to his hometown of Mount Gambier, South Australia, over Easter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI showed him where I grew up, so he understands my family and how I operate and sort of where I\u2019ve come from,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually got him in a go-kart, got him driving, it was pretty funny. He\u2019s definitely not going to drive my Mustang because\u2026 oh my God!<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that bond is what I\u2019m trying to build with him. I think we\u2019re slowly getting better and better and he\u2019s understanding the car more, the team more, working with all the operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis championship is so tough at the moment, it\u2019s ridiculous how close everyone is and, you might be good one day and the next day you\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Allen made the inaugural Supercars Grand Final last year with a series of steady drives that defied his rookie status.<\/p>\n
Cracking a victory was priority number one for 2026, but has only come after a series of frustrations \u2013 including costly clashes with rivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cTowards the end of last year was quite good, and I sort of set out on a bit of a \u2018don\u2019t try and aim for a race win, just aim for top-five results\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat attitude got me some really good results last year and then at the start of this year I had a bumpy road.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously with Riccardo, it was very challenging for him him to come in and be on the game straight away, which impressively, he was, it was just little procedural stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think now he\u2019s really getting a gist of it and for me, I\u2019m just trying to be patient.<\/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 that we had.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe set out on a bit of a hunt this year trying to get it and had a bit of reality check after Sydney and the Grand Prix and went, \u2018just be patient, calm down a bit\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously my peers were there for me and helped me get through and now I\u2019m pretty happy. I\u2019ve just got to keep chipping away and not rush the process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allen celebrates with the team including Corte, far left. Image; Supplied The Italian was a left-field recruit for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,101817,160567,12357,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-613759","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-grove-racing","14":"tag-kai-allen","15":"tag-slot1","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613759","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=613759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}