Red Bull Racing team boss Jamie Whincup has stopped short of apologizing to teammates Scott Pye and Will Brown over a bizarre Supercars practice crash that he accepts was his fault.
It what was the worst possible outcome for the Triple Eight Camaros early in Saturday’s practice, Whincup – co-driving with championship leader Broc Feeney – failed to see teammate Scott Pye’s slowdown for safety car testing.
And as a result, Whincup put Feeney’s Camaro straight into the back of Pye, forcing both cars off the track.
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While Feeney would go on to put that Red Bull entry on pole for Sunday’s race with a stunning fifth straight shootout success, the drama left teammate Will Brown “filthy” as he starts The Bend enduro from 16th.
“Jamie Whincup has hit Scott Pye – unbelievable,” Fox Motorsport’s Mark Skaife said as Pye could be heard on team radio stating: “Jamie hit me!”.
“Two team cars, BANG!
“We’re all thinking this rehearsal (for the new safety car slowdown) was something worthwhile … that was a big incident with the number 1 team.
“It was like a Dukes of Hazzards scene!”
Speaking after the incident, Whincup took full responsibility for the crash.
“Damn, there’s not much worse than crashing into your teammate,” Whincup said.
“I just made a mistake.
“I was trying to go as close to Scotty as I could, to simulate what would happen in the race. In hindsight, I probably should’ve dropped back, but at the same time I wanted to simulate real-life situation.
“I feel shocking for the guys, my car was bent. I was able to keep going, but it wasn’t nice. Scotty missed the session which was unfortunate.
“I’m not here to blame anyone or anything – it was my fault. Of course, hopefully we can learn from it.
“I feel pretty bad for everybody, but I’ve just got to make sure I prop myself up now and be ready for tomorrow. To put a positive on a bad situation, I’m glad it happened in practice and not the race.”
Fox Motorsport commentator Chad Neylon was left stunned by the incident which occurred during a test run of the new safety car slowdown period.
“Clearly they got their wires crossed about how late they can break before it (the slow zone),” he said.
Whincup was described as looking “pretty animated” when he exited his car back in the pits.
“I don’t reckon Jamie could actually see properly at that stage – he was so close in behind he didn’t really know where the line was (to start the slowdown),” Skaife added.
“Scott Pye was doing the right thing!
“It just caught Jamie out.”
The moment left series leader Feeney “dark” as crews worked to repair the damage done primarily to Brown’s entry.
And the day only got worse for Brown who finished qualifying in 16th after failing to get his Camaro back out for practice.
“Will Brown got out of the car filthy… and did a beeline straight to the truck so there’ll be no chatting to him,” pit lane reporter Mark Larkham said.
Pye said the early morning drama with Whincup certainly put the team behind ahead of the enduro on Sunday.
“There’s no denying we’re struggling a little bit for pace,” he said.
“There’s no excuses… we’re just not quite there. I’m sure Will’s in there having a think.
“I’ve got to somehow get this thing off the line real well, stay out of trouble, and then move it forward so when Will gets back in I’ve handed him something clean and up the pointy end.
“I haven’t driven today (in race conditions, with the crash happening in the safety car testing period).
“Once we got the damage, I never got back out. I tried to do some in P5 (the last practice session) but we had a little issue – I Don’t actually know what it was but it meant that when I went out to do my run, I had to get back out (of the car) again.
“Yeah I would have loved another race run – silver lining I guess is I’m fresh as a daisy for tomorrow.”
Skaife believes an “out of sorts” Whincup would be taking the crash hard, given his responsibilities as team boss.
“You’re probably more hard on yourself!” he said.
“You go back in and you go, ‘how did that happen?’ It makes it tougher.
“When you think about his job and what he does every day in making this thing run… you’ve got to try to turn all that off and become a professional race driver again and that’s hard.”
Speaking on the broadcast, Pye admitted he was initially caught out by the safety car testing procedure, but suggested Whincup simply missed his marker.
“I think Jamie’s maybe just missed the board there on the exit to Turn 3, just being relatively close to me,” he shared.
“Obviously I’m pushing up to that line to make sure I maximise my deceleration and not lose any time. So I braked real hard and he’s just been caught out and hit me in the rear.
“So, a fair bit of damage. But yeah, we’re learning and it’s complicated system, but yeah, it is what it is.”
Officials have introduced a series of Safety Car rule changes for the weekend, with tests also taking place on Friday. Notably, drivers slow down to 80km/h and pit lane is closed, before a ‘slow zone’ is left in place.
TOP 10 SHOOTOUT RESULTS
1. Feeney/Whincup
2. C.Hill/McLeod
3. Kostecki/Hazelwood
4. Waters/Winterbottom
5. Randle/Moffat
6. Payne/Tander
7. De Pasquale/Jones
8. Mostert/Coulthard
9. Murray/Stewart
10. R.Wood/Ojeda
Part of this article originally appeared on Supercars.com and was reproduced with permission
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