Losing the Bathurst 1000 due to a refuelling error felt as bad as the day Formula 1 legend Ayrton Senna died, says Team 18 principal Adrian Burgess.
Three-time world champion Senna died at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix after losing control of his car and crashing at the Tamburello curve, sustaining fatal head injuries.
Burgess was a McLaren mechanic from 1991, coinciding with Senna’s last title-winning season. Originally part of the test team, he moved to the race team in 1994, when the Brazilian departed for Williams.
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The Englishman switched to Supercars in the mid-2000s and had been the Team 18 principal since 2024.
Team 18 had been on course for its biggest ever result when Anton de Pasquale took the lead of the Bathurst 1000 with his final pit stop, jumping erstwhile leader Zach Bates.
But a catastrophic miscalculation meant De Pasquale had been underfuelled, and despite a late safety car and frantic efforts to conserve fuel, his tank ran dry at the start of the final lap.
Brodie Kostecki cruised through for victory with Todd Hazelwood, while De Pasquale and co-driver Lee Holdworth failed to finish.
Speaking to Fox Sports in an interview airing during this weekend’s coverage of the Gold Coast 500, Burgess said the last-lap defeat ranks among his most painful motorsport experiences.
“Yeah, 100 per cent,” he said when asked whether it was one of the toughest days he’s had in motor racing.
“The other one is I suppose losing Ayrton, being there when that happened. But this is up there.
“The next day you get up and you’re in the car and you actually feel like someone’s died. That’s how we were.
“How everyone dealt with it was amazing. It was beautiful to be part of it, in a weird way, because everyone was checking in on each other, we were all ringing each other in the cars on the way back.
“There were plenty of tears — there were lots of tears. You actually felt like you’d lost somebody, because we were that close to doing it — and doing it on merit. We didn’t luck into the position; we were there because we should’ve been there.
“It was a hard day. It was a very, very hard week. You felt like you’d lost your firstborn child. It was horrible.”
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De Pasquale said he couldn’t bear remaining in the funereal atmosphere after returning to pit lane without his car.
“The hardest thing was getting back to the garage,” he said. “Everyone was crying. People were hiding in corners.
“It got to the point where I just had to get out of there, so I just jumped in my car, grabbed my racing gear and just drove home.
“I did the whole race and then red-eyed straight back to Melbourne as quick as possible, because I just couldn’t be there. It felt shit.”
Team 18 put the mistake down to an “issue” in its fuel strategy software that incorrectly thought De Pasquale had taken a full tank at his penultimate stop and therefore gave him less fuel than he needed at his final service.
“We weren’t trying to be too smart, we weren’t trying to be too flash,” Burgess said. “We were trying to finish with 2kg in the car, which is what we normally do.
“We weren’t trying to gamble or anything like this … we didn’t realise. We actually honestly did not realise for a while until (TV crews) came in and started asking us questions about fuel and tyres.
“Then it slowly sunk in that we may be in a bit of bother.
“It’s the smallest margin — 2s, that’s what we were missing at the flag. It’s gut-wrenching, it really is.
“It’s devastating. It really was devastating.”
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The team had just a fortnight before the Gold Coast 500, the first round of the title-deciding Supercars finals.
De Pasquale is seventh in the standings. He’s the only Team 18 representative and one of only two Chevrolet drivers in the mix.
Burgess said winning the title would be a worthy consolation for the team’s Bathurst heartbreak.
“We want to win the championship. We’re here to do that anyway, but now …”
“Redemption will be getting us to Adelaide, and that’s what we want to do.
“If we get there, it’s still never going to make up for losing Bathurst — you can’t; nothing can make up for that — but it will go a long way.
“That will be an acceptable outcome considering the progress we’ve made and the disappointment we’ve endured through this season.”
But he added: “You never get over it. I can tell you Formula 1 grands prix where I’ve been leading, first and second, and had two DNFs. You don’t forget those days, but they’re the things you don’t want to forget, because they give you the energy, they give you the drive to get out of bed every day and motivate your crew.
“They’re the life experiences that you pass on and that you use as fuel for the guys.”
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