Friday favourite: The Supercars legend who helped a former F1 candidate win Bathurst

Alexandre Premat has had no shortage of speedy teammates throughout a career that has spanned many disciplines around the world.

The 2004 Macau Grand Prix winner went up against Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton in GP2, finishing in the top four both seasons, and held off a challenge from Peugeot to win the Le Mans Series title in 2008 with Audi teammate Mike Rockefeller. Happy memories of racing with Bruno Spengler in his F3 days, traveling together to races and learning English by singing along to the music on the radio.

But the West Coast-based Frenchman, who today manages F1 Academy newcomer Courtney Cron as well as training gentleman drivers in Ferrari Challenge and Lamborghini Super Trofeo, cannot look beyond his long tenure. Scott McLaughlin When asked to choose his favorite team-mate in Supercars spanning from 2013 to 2019.

A season with McLaughlin in the Gary Rogers Motorsport Holden squad led to him sharing a car in five of the next six seasons at the Supercars endurance rounds and culminating with Bathurst 1000 glory at DJR Team Penske in 2019. Premat also contributed the first two of McLaughlin’s three. Supercar title, before ex brad jones racing Driver tim slade The co-driver role was signed for McLaughlin’s final season in 2020 before switching to IndyCar.

“My highlight in racing V8 Supercars was Scott McLaughlin,” Premat explains. “Scott is an amazing person; We always had a good time together. I remember when we were going to COTA, when we raced V8 Supercars in 2013, we were taking the same flight. Scott’s values ​​and even his family’s values ​​were a good match.”

Even when Premat was not in Australia, he says McLaughlin was in regular contact to keep him updated on developments, and fielded media questions about what his co-driver was doing. Used to postpone. The level of confidence that McLaughlin underlined in requesting that Premat rejoin him upon his own switch of teams for 2017 was greatly appreciated when turning to the high-commitment circuit. , where “If you’re not at the limit of the track, you are. You’ll miss two tenths”.

“There was a true relationship,” Premat reflects. “The media was sometimes harsh towards me, especially when I lived in America. They’d say, ‘Will Alex be ready, what has he done this year, has he raced?’ And Scott said, ‘Alex, we’re in the best team, you’re one of the best drivers, I have 100% confidence in you.’ There was no discussion about, ‘Are you going to be OK?’ He just assured me of his statement.”

Following his departure from the Audi works fold, Premat came to Supercars for 2012 with GRM, but it was not plain sailing. He filled in for Greg Ritter at Surfers Paradise, then had to sit out the final round in Sydney due to dehydration after his cool suit was damaged during the first race. McLaughlin took his seat for his first appearance as a solo driver in Supercars, a prelude to joining the team full-time at the time GRM in 2013. michael caruso Switched to the new Nissan Altima project.

Premat says McLaughlin was keen to take advantage of his extensive racing experience with manufacturers, following which he did solo Formula 1 practice with the Spyker team at the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix and teamed up with Nicolas Lapierre to drive France to the inaugural A1 in 2005. Won Grand Prix title. 06.

“There was no pressure on me, so I was coming absolutely free. Some people are performing better without any pressure.”
alex primet

“He was asking me a lot about my background,” recalls Premat, who explains that McLaughlin was invited to DTM test with Audi, “but he couldn’t get there because of V8 commitments. The timing was not lucky”.

“I always build relationships like that with my teammates; Maybe I was too nice. That’s probably why I wasn’t going to F1! Friendship is more important for me.”

Premat lost his seat at the end of 2013, as GRM became Volvo’s works team and Sweden’s Robert Dahlgren was brought in as partner with McLaughlin. Fourth in the Adelaide season opener was his best result, while the rookie declared himself a future star by winning twice. Teaming up with McLaughlin for the Sandown-Bathurst-Gold Coast endurance races in 2014-15, Premat climbed onto the podium in the Surfers for the first time and it’s clear that reducing his schedule to team up with McLaughlin had many benefits. .

“Racing is not that easy because there is pressure on you throughout the season,” he says. But on his part-time schedule, Premat believes that “There was no pressure on me, so I was just coming freely. Some people are performing better without any pressure, because it’s not the same expectation, not the same disappointment, that gave me all the tools to become a better driver when I came to those races.

Coming in as a part-time player without any pressure, it was helpful for McLaughlin to keep him in the loop, which helped Premat bring out his best performances.

Photo by: Daniel Kalisz / Motorsport Images

Premat found McLaughlin to always be “very mature” for his age and says, “I felt I improved a lot working with him”. In particular, Premat explains how he learned to adapt his driving style; A natural left-foot breaker, unlike most people in the paddock, he pitched the car more than his contemporaries who were off the throttle and were more patient – ​​which also had benefits on tire life.

He added, “I was very close to matching his time, even though I wasn’t doing a full season.” “It just shows that my profile was performing well, better in fact, with less pressure or just because maybe I had a better crew around me.”

After cooperating with the ultimate champion shane van gisbergen At the Triple Eight in 2016, which yielded three second-place finishes and a first Supercar win on the Gold Coast, Prymat and McLaughlin re-united for 2017 as the Kiwis switched to the new link-up. dick johnson racing And Roger Penske’s famous livery. It helped matters that DJR Team Penske had taken on Triple Eight technical director Ludo Lacroix, Premat remembers, while McLaughlin made his priority clear.

“When Scott talked to Roger, he said, ‘I want to get Alex, that’s all’,” he says. And we’ve always had a really good relationship so that made it easier.

A first win together at Surfers Paradise in 2017 managed to make up for the disappointment at Bathurst, where McLaughlin took pole but the pair were forced out early due to engine problems in a wet race. Premat believes “we could have won Bathurst three times in a row” with DJR Team Penske. In 2018 Premat led the race for a while before ultimately finishing third, then in 2019 it all came together after switching from the FG X Falcon to the Mustang. However it was not without controversy.

Despite McLaughlin’s qualifying engine failing technical inspection, the team was prepared for the team order saga in the race. Under a late safety car, McLaughlin and Premat’s sister car were running fabian coulthard Slowed down the pace and bottled up the rear pack.

Apart from the benefit to Coulthard, who would avoid the double stack behind McLaughlin upon reaching the pits, the eventual winners also clearly benefited. McLaughlin faced the final refueling longer than his rivals, but Coulthard apparently drove slowly (the stewards believed his engineer’s instructions were read from a script, the wreck Due to an awkward mispronunciation of ), which ensured that McLaughlin would not lose position and would have to restart stuck in the pack.

McLaughlin and Premat triumph at Bathurst during the Frenchman’s final season Down Under in 2019

Photo by: Dirk Kleinsmith

“Apparently, there was a bit of an altercation with Fabian, when I was watching on TV, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, I couldn’t understand what happened,” says Premat. ” “That was kind of crazy.”

For his part, Premat believes “it would have ended the same way” and does not believe Coulthard’s intervention made any lasting difference, citing his pace which made the car faster all day. Was kept on. He treasures the memory of “winning the hardest race I ever had.”

“To win that race, it’s a big achievement,” he reflects. “We knew we had the car, the mechanics, the team, the driver, everything. We had a complete package of three years, but we could not achieve it. So some people at some level said, ‘Will we be able to do this?’ And obviously everyone was relieved at the end of that race.”

While McLaughlin went on to have a successful IndyCar career with Penske, Premat says, “I still have a lot of respect for him and a lot of friendship.” Having also ventured into sportscar racing and winning the LMP2 class at the Sebring 12 Hours last year, the 31-year-old is on his way to building a CV as diverse as Premat’s own…

Highly regarded as a co-driver during his tenure in Supercars, Premat remains active today in training gentleman drivers in North America.

Photo by: Dirk Kleinsmith