JAMIE Whincup has taken his first moves into life out of the driving seat after buying a 15 per cent stake in Triple Eight Race Engineering.

Having won each of his seven Supercar championships as a Triple Eight driver, Whincup joins majority shareholder Roland Dane and minority shareholders Time Miles, Paul Dumbrell and Jessica Dane as equity partners.

The move is part of Whincup’s plan to completely join the management structure of the team once he finally hangs up his helmet.

“I joined Triple Eight a long time ago and have had a fantastic career as a driver, but any athlete getting towards the end of their career is faced with this daunting thing of what to do afterwards,” he said.

“There's two things I am very certain about. One, I love motorsport and, two, I love this organisation and the people within it, and I want to continue that for a long time to come.

“I'm making a stepping stone this year, I've been accepted by the current Triple Eight shareholders to become a shareholder myself.

“That doesn't guarantee me anything, that gives me an opportunity to learn the business and see if I can still be an asset here well past my driving career.”

Whincup has one year left on his driver contract but revealed he will be behind the wheel for at least another year after that before considering a move into management.

“I'm still going to be driving for at least another two years and I'm absolutely going to make sure that my full focus is on driving the car and showcasing what we do here at Triple Eight to the best of my ability,” he said.

“But in the background, I'll start the journey of understanding what this team's all about, understanding what Supercars is all about, understanding a little bit of what TV-land is all about.”