Motorsport: Heat on Nissan to get Supercars results

Andre Heimgartner in action during the Supercars pre-season test. Photo / Getty Images

The return of Ford's factory support for the Supercars championship has shifted the focus to Nissan Motorsport and whether they will continue beyond the end of this year when their contract expires.

The Altima hasn't delivered consistently good results since coming into the sport in 2013 and there will be some heat on the Kelly Motorsport team to put some performances together as Nissan ponders future involvement.

Kiwi driver Andre Heimgartner knows improved results will encourage Nissan but Ford's commitment could also help sway them.

"Results always help so anything we can do there is clearly going to be a positive," Heimgartner told The Herald.

"It definitely can't hurt having another manufacturer committed to it - it definitely shows they want to be involved – it is just whether or not it fits with Nissan's schedule or not I guess."

The start of the 2018 season has been a frustrating one for Heimgartner. He returned to a fulltime drive after a year out this season and has shown some promising speed at times but hasn't been able to put together a complete performance to earn a good finish as yet.

"Obviously the results haven't come our way for various reasons but we have shown good speed at various points throughout the year so far," the 22-year-old said.

"It has been positive. You want to get those results but we are just building and learning.

"I think I have performed well within the team but there are a few areas I need to improve on – nothing I have been doing is perfect so I will have to keep chipping away at that."

Nissan has made some significant improvements this season but they have been hard to see as other teams have also picked up their performance.

"We were about four tenths faster at Tasmania last time out and we have made big gains with how the car performs on the track," Heimgartner explained.

"We are making gains but unfortunately no-one else is standing still.

"The new Holden has come in and it is obviously very quick so we need to adapt and catch-up to them.

"Red Bull and those teams week in and week out add those one percent things and they add up.

"The equipment we have got, the team we have got is all capable – we just need to put it altogether to get a result."