Erebus hits out at Ford Mustang for Townsville after parity review

Erebus Motorsport’s team chief has hit out at the changes that will be made to the Ford Mustang ahead of this weekend’s Townsville 500.

Series leading Erebus Motorsport team chief Barry Ryan has hit out over a lack of clarity surrounding parity changes to the Ford Mustangs for the Townsville 500, which he expects to make a “significant” difference for his rivals on track.

But Dick Johnson Racing boss David Noble did not expect the parity changes to provide an immediate “golden bullet” for the Mustangs, although he said the Fords would now have a “way better chance” to compete against the Chevrolet Camaros.

Ford’s parity fight scored a win after Supercars announced aerodynamic changes would be made to the Gen3 Mustang for this weekend’s Townsville 500 following an official parity review.

Brodie Kostecki’s number 99 Camaro at Newcastle. Picture: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

Supercars said the review had concluded adjustments needed to be made to increase the rear downforce of the Mustang.

Changes will be made to modify the position, span, and angle of the rear wing and increase the size of the Mustang’s boot spoiler.

Supercars launched a review into parity between the Mustang and Camaro after the ongoing dominance of the Chevrolet at last month’s Darwin Triple Crown hit an official trigger.

The investigation came after Ford team bosses united to call on Supercars to make a parity adjustment to allow the Mustang to “compete on an even playing field”.

Ryan, whose Camaro drivers Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown sit first and second in the Supercars standings, said he was “not really comfortable” with the changes, which he claimed had not been fully clarified.

“Unfortunately, we do not know the full details of the changes and their effects on the Fords, which is disappointing,” Ryan said.

“I’m not really comfortable because they haven’t really explained what it is going to do.

“We are all technical people, so we all like to see facts and figures and data and go all right ‘How have you come up with that?’. We haven’t been told that, so I guess we don’t deserve to be told and we just sit down and shut up.

“From what we understand it is going to give them more rear downforce and more total downforce, so that’s not what the deal was supposed to be.

“It was known and approved by both GM, Ford and Supercars after the final VCAT testing that Ford had slightly more front downforce and slightly less rear downforce.

“We expected the target of this parity change would be simply to balance out the Ford package to be a more even overall aero balance and hence more matched to the GM.”

Anton de Pasquale driver of the Shell V-Power Racing Ford Mustang. Picture: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

Supercars said the review determined aero parity had been established during pre-season VCAT testing based on agreed-upon ride heights and a performance window.

But the analysis showed the performance window varied under braking conditions, with the adjustments “aiming to bring the aerodynamic performance of the two Supercars closer together”.

Ryan said the outlined changes were “significant” for the Mustangs.

“It’s a big change, so it will be noticeable for sure,” Ryan said.

“Hopefully it upsets their car and makes them (Mustangs) harder to tune, but it is definitely going to be a significant change.

“We’ll just try and be the best GM team and if that gets us the win, great, if it gets us sixth because there are five Fords in front of us …. then hopefully not too many.”

Noble, chief executive of the Ford homologation team DJR, hoped the changes would now give his team a chance to win races.

“We certainly feel that puts us in a better competitive framework to go to race now regularly at a level that, fingers crossed, we can win races – that’s the whole idea,” Noble said.

“Supercars have tried to set-up the Gen3 so that it is equal for the Camaro and the Mustang, so fingers crossed we get that this weekend. I think we will see some improvement, what quantity I am not sure.

“It will still come down to teams and their setups as well. This is not just all of a sudden a golden bullet if you like where you just bolt it on and away you go, teams are still going to have to understand the setups.

“So there is still going to be a lot of work that we have got to understand how it impacts what we do and how we do it, but it gives us a way better chance than what we’ve had.”

Chevrolet Camaros have taken he chequered flag in every race this year.

Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters is the only Ford driver to have a win to his name this year, but he was awarded the victory after Triple Eight’s disqualification from the opening race in Newcastle.

Camaro drivers occupy the first four positions in the Supercars championship – Erebus pair Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown and Triple Eight’s Broc Feeney and Shane van Gisbergen.

Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert is the best-placed Ford driver in fifth, 179 points behind series leader Kostecki.

Originally published as Erebus hits out at Ford Mustang for Townsville after parity review