Software excuse hammered by Skaife after ‘unforgivable’ fuel error
Supercars legend Mark Skaife has fired up at Team18 for the “unforgivable” fuel miscalculation that cost Anton De Pasquale and Lee Holdsworth victory in the Bathurst 1000.
De Pasquale’s tank ran dry halfway up Mountain Straight while leading on the final lap of the race, despite heavy fuel conservation and then help from a late-race safety car.
Anton De Pasquale ran out of fuel on the last lap of the Bathurst 1000. Fox
De Pasquale emerged from his last pit stop with a lead of about 10 seconds over the Matt Stone Racing car of Zach Bates and Aaron Seton, meaning they had ample time to put extra fuel in the car to ensure they got home, and still exit the pits in the lead.
“It’s horrible, but it’s unforgivable,” Skaife said on Fox Sports’ MotorRacing 360 on Wednesday,
“It’s Australia’s biggest car race. At your last stop, you have to put up the right amount of fuel in – that’s just fundamental – and you have to make it so that you can sprint to the end.
"Play it out. If the safety car doesn't come out, they stop earlier because he's going at full race pace.
"The safety car almost rescued them.
"But the reality is, it is Australia's biggest car race, and everyone with every bit of brain power in that organisation needed to be part of the last stop to work out not just with software and stuff but the actual calculation."
On the broadcast, Supercars’ pit reporter and technical guru Mark Larkham was on to the team’s fuel shortage only a handful of laps after the final stop, but was reassured by team boss Adrian Burgess they were fine.
In a statement on Tuesday, team owner Charlie Schwerkolt blamed a software error for the miscalculation, which was “a team responsibility”, with “no single individual to blame”.
But Skaife, who won The Great Race six times, said the team should have also gone “back to fundamentals” and double-checked the calculations manually.
"Yes, there is a software number that updates after every lap that they'll have a number to get home by," he said.
To make matters worse, De Pasquale came to a grinding halt at the Chase and did not finish the race. Fox Sports
“Firstly, that needs to have flexibility. Obviously, it didn’t have that. The second part is that you go and work it out just with a plan-out calculation of what you need to finish the race.
"There's the maths – there's the simple calculation over here of what you think you need to get to the end – and then there's predictive software that gives you a guide.
"In the middle of all that, neither of those took place."
Making matters worse was it's not the first time the team had run out of fuel on the last lap at Bathurst.
At the end of the 2023 race, both cars had to make stops at the start of the last lap while running in the top-10 because they were short on fuel.
While the No.20 car of Scott Pye and Warren Luff was able to complete the final lap and were classified 17th, the team car of Mark Winterbottom and Michael Caruso got stuck at pit exit when Shane van Gisbergen crossed the line to win the race, which immediately closes the pit exit.
Skaife acknowledged this latest issue was not down to an error made by a single individual.
Team18’s blunder gifted victory to Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood. Getty Images
"There's no way that anyone in that place would ever miscalculate or do anything like that. It's heartbreaking," he continued.
"I mostly feel sorry for Anton De Pasquale and Lee Holdsworth, who drove so well all day and probably should have won that race.
“The reality is, there was a massive mistake at the end, and they didn’t.”
Skaife said the team’s review was “clearly” the right thing to do, and urged Team18 to be “really harsh” on themselves to ensure it never happens again.
"Everyone's got to be really honest about how that is appraised, what they do moving forward with whatever software stuff they use, and whatever calculation methodology they use.
"You've got to be really harsh on yourselves about not doing that again.
"But the second part of that then is to be able to regroup.
Mark Skaife (right) won the Bathurst 1000 six times, including with Todd Kelly (left) in 2005. Getty
“You’ve got to learn now from losing, and you’ve got to learn in a way that’s proactive to finish the rest of this championship off.
"I think their statement was pretty apt. I think the thing that you've got to do now is try to get them all together, put your arm around them, and press on with the last part of the year."
De Pasquale is one of only two Chevrolet Camaro drivers – along with Matt Stone Racing's Jack Le Brocq – in the finals, which begins at the Gold Coast 500 next weekend.
