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Percat undergoes pre-season driver coaching

Nick Percat travelled to Perth earlier this week for some pre-season driver coaching ahead of an important 2023 Supercars campaign.

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The four-time race winner will be looking to bounce back from what was a difficult first season with Walkinshaw Andretti United.

Percat struggled with the fickle WAU package compared to teammate Chaz Mostert, particularly when it came to qualifying speed.

His cause wasn't helped by a number of engineering changes on his side of the garage, with Geoff Slater starting the season as his engineer before being replaced by Grant McPherson.

When McPherson departed for Grove Racing, Adam Austin was promoted to race engineer on Percat's car for the final two rounds, that partnership yielding a fine second place in the opening Adelaide race.

Austin it set to continue in the role throughout the 2023 season.

Looking to leave no stone unturned ahead of the new campaign, both Percat and Austin travelled to Perth this week to spend a day driving a Radical at Wanneroo Raceway with driver coach BD Soutar-Dawson.

"It was really good," Percat told Motorsport.com. "I felt a bit rusty having not driven anything since Adelaide.

"Pre-COVID I always tried to come over and spend a day with BD and the Arise Racing guys. I trust BD and his feedback and it helps me pick up driving technique things and little things that creep in over time that aren't quite right.

"And I brought Adam over just to do another day at a race track together. We only got the two event last year. We weren't tuning the [Radical], it was more about hanging out and him getting more an idea about my driving style and the things I like out of the car.

"We just wanted to speed up the learning a little bit and to be honest it was nice to spend a day away from Supercars and do something that's really fun at a race track. It was really good of the team to let him fly in and fly out for it."

While a Radical is entirely different beast to a Supercar, Percat is confident there is a real benefit to the seat time ahead of the season.

"It's like doing a skills session if you're an AFL player," he said. "The cars are quite sensitive, if you get it wrong you go a lot slower.

"BD is very good at looking at my driving style and going, 'hey why have you started doing this with the brake pressure, and why have you started loading the tyre this way' and so on.

"It's good to have someone else look over things. It gets your brain working and you're out driving. Nothing comes to close to it in terms of preparation."

Despite his difficult 2022, Percat says he's heading into the new season confident that he can bounce back.

He will have the advantage of an all-new generation of car, with WAU's Holden Commodores making way for Gen3 Ford Mustangs.

According to Percat, the biggest factor in his renewed confidence is the burgeoning relationship with Austin.

"From the moment he came on my car it's felt like I've got a great engineer again," said Percat. "The whole vibe on the #2 side of the garage changed.

"We missed a trick in qualifying a few times but that rests on me, I lost a bit of confidence during the year. But the race pace we had on the Gold Coast and Adelaide was quite strong.

"So I'm keen for a clean start. I know where we are going engineering-wise which is massively important.

"Now it's up to Chaz and myself to give the right feedback and up to all of us at the team to put these Gen3 cars together properly, not rush, and do the one per centers.

"I'm confident with where we're going."

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