Jamie Whincup says it’s going to take “a lot of hard work over a long time” for Red Bull to regain its competitive edge over the V8 Supercars field.

While Winton has proven a bogey circuit for the team since the Car of the Future was introduced, Whincup insists the team’s mini slump is not circuit specific.

The six-time champion finished ninth and sixth in the two Saturday races at Winton, which follows 15th, second and 19th place results across the three races last time out at Barbagallo.

With Prodrive’s FG X Falcons the class of the field at both events, Whincup is surprisingly downbeat over the prospect of a quick turnaround.

“We could snag a good set-up (for today), but it’d be an artificial pace,” Whincup told Speedcafe.com.

“We need to get back to being consistent week in, week out. We’ve just lost that competitive edge slightly.

“People don’t get to be consistently fast by a bit of luck or a little tweak here or there. It’s a long drawn out process. It’s a lot of hard work over a long time.

“We’ve enjoyed that for a while and I’m sure Prodrive are enjoying their pace now. Good on them for that.

“When you’ve had success it’s hard to drop back in the pack so we’re going to work hard to get back up there.

“But we’ve been here before, so there’s no panic stations. We’ve still got the best crew in pitlane and we’ll fight on like we always do.”

Although an ability to drag solid results out of difficult weekends has proven important in previous title victories, the 32-year-old isn’t taking much solace from continuing to bank points.

“That all revolves around if you get there in the end,” he said.

“If we keep performing like we have this weekend and in Perth, we’re not a championship contender.

“We’ve got to turn things around and at least make a race of it.”

Whincup sits third in the championship after 11 races, 73 points behind team-mate and leader Craig Lowndes.