Wheldon: Surfers was a tough baptism

Wheldon contested the non-championship event with his team for next year after being dropped by Chip Ganassi, who ran Dario Franchitti alongside Scott Dixon.

Wheldon struggled for pace in Australia, qualifying only 18th, but fought his way up to tenth in the race.

"This weekend was a very tough baptism for myself and the Panther crew and we were happy to leave with a top ten result," said Wheldon.

"The track is difficult for people who have never been here before and we pretty much lost the first three practice sessions with a few little problems that put us on the back foot.

But Wheldon insists that the experience will help to make them stronger next year.

"We're in a good place because now we know what we need to work on together throughout the off-season," he said. "We're in a much better position now as a team than we would have been if we hadn't been able to run here."