Triple Eight Racing Engineering’s Roland Dane has described reports that he has had talks with Mercedes-Benz or AMG as a “crock”.
Dane said he laughed out loud when he read a media article linking Triple Eight, which runs the all-conquering TeamVodafone, with Mercedes-Benz to run a V8 Supercar team after the Car of the Future regulations are implemented.
“What astonishes me is nobody’s ever asked me,” he said.
“Not one single person has asked me if we have ever spoken with Mercedes-Benz about coming into V8 Supercars or going racing full stop.
“I’ve never, ever spoken to them (Mercedes-Benz) about it.”
Dane said Triple Eight was keen to continue its relationship with Holden past 2012, when the current contract finishes.
“Of course I’d love to carry on the way we are with the sponsors we’ve got and everybody else but is it possible? Who knows?
“We are very happy to have a deal with Holden,” he continued.
“If we can keep doing what we’re doing, that deal will almost certainly continue beyond then (the end of 2012). So why the hell would I be doing something else (with another manufacturer)? It’s nonsensical.”
Dane said it was not necessarily important to have more manufacturers enter the category.
“To me it’s important to have an open mind to somebody with the right sort of caliber coming in if need be because car manufacturers can come and go,” he explained.
“It’s always good in a business, and V8 Supercars is a business teams own, to always keep your options a bit open.”
Dane noted that Car of the Future was not primarily about attracting more manufacturers to the series.
“Car of the Future is about trying to build a car which is as serviceable as possible within certain cost constraints and to keep ourselves relevant with the current manufacturers, let alone anyone else,” he said.