Triple 8 team looking good

... but so far things are looking pretty good for the Triple Eight team in 2011.

We've had Abu Dhabi, the Clipsal 500 and now the Melbourne Grand Prix run to gauge where we're at.

Now it's up to me to get to some results, the car speed is there but I just haven't been able to finish with the results we're looking for.

I'm fit and healthy and that's a big part of where we're at. The other thing is that, as a team, we haven't had to build cars over Christmas. We've been able to focus on the current cars, finesse them, make them a better car, and I think it's paying dividends now.

The Vodafone team's been able to hit the ground running compared with the last three years and the team's a lot stronger than where it was last year at this stage.

But there are a couple of others, such as HRT and Stone Brothers, showing promise. Then others like Gary Rogers and Ford Performance Racing are not too far behind, if they are behind.

Everyone will get stronger, wiser and smarter as the year goes on. Most rounds to date have been fuel consumption races, most will have that element this year and teams have to get their head around how to get the most efficiencies out of these V8 Supercars.

In Melbourne my car was great all weekend, unfortunately I didn't get to show it too much, although I was able to get pole in the shoot-out which was fantastic.

On the Friday we had a problem with the front suspension after contact with Shane Van Gisbergen and then Saturday I came from the back of the grid in 27th to sixth which wasn't bad.

I love Albert Park as a race track and being a non-championship weekend allows teams to experiment and have a bit of fun in car set-ups and trialling things.  We were the same and gave some components some race miles as well.

Albert Park's classified as a street circuit but it's more like a Townsville, there's part of a street element to it but we race around a parkland and it's a very flat, smooth and flowing circuit, which you need for Formula One, so V8 Supercars generally put on some good racing there because of the nature and the flwo of the track.

It's got some width to it and it's got some narrow sections where Rick Kelly and I unfortunately had contact and ultimately ended up in the wall on Sunday.

As soon as that race was over we packed the truck, Jamie and I did all our corporate visits and then sat in the Vodafone box, mingling and watching the grand prix.

It was fantastic to see Lewis Hamilton get up there for second, at the moment I think the Red Bull cars are the ones to beat, especially Sebastian Vettel, he's right on top of his game and last weekend was in a league of his own.