New Mercedes V8 Supercar driver Lee Holdsworth says he has no idea where the car will be running in the series this year but has hosed down high hopes.
Holdsworth, Tim Slade and German Maro Engel will drive the three Erebus E63 sedans, built as customer cars for the team by Mercedes Benz’s tuning arm AMG in Germany.
Mercedes and the other new entrant Nissan will join Holden and Ford in a crucial first official test day on Saturday at Eastern Creek where the four brands will showcase their potential.
Holdsworth drove a Falcon for Stone Brothers Racing last year, the team that has switched brands and become Erebus.
The Victorian said that while he has had some insight into the new car’s ability, the team will take a cautious approach to its debut season in the V8 Supercar Championship.
“The big thing for me is I don’t want to have expectations for this year,” Holdsworth said on Thursday.
“It’s something that we will reassess where we’re at after each round and then apply different goals through the year.”
He said the team had no idea where it would be at the season-opening Clipsal 500 in Adelaide later this month.
“We could be 15th – we could be first.
“Hopefully we’re starting within the window and we can come out and be competitive straight away, at the first meeting.
“The most important thing is if we do have a problem, we’ve got the guys overseas helping us out.”
He said he expected the car’s potential would be revealed fairly quickly, despite having little hands-on experience so far.
“We’ve had a shake-down day and also an accredited manufacturers’ day where we also only did very few laps,” Holdsworth said.
“We did drive the car in anger for half a day at the Queensland Raceway and we were really pleased with the times we were putting forward.
“With the new Mercedes engine coming from Germany, there were a few things we had to tune but we got on top of it and were really pleased,” he said.
Holdsworth said his approach to the Mercedes was tentative but he was relieved by its feedback.
“The most positive thing for me is that we didn’t really know what to expect of this car and, the first time I drove it, I was quite pleased with the way it handled.”
Holdsworth said he did not know what horsepower the Mercedes V8 was producing but hoped it would at least be a match for the opposition.
“It was incredible how much power we were getting out of the Holden and Ford engines but I think we’ll put together something equal to what we had and hopefully even better.
“I don’t know the horsepower figures but it did feel strong,” he said.
