What the drivers really think: Mid-season report on Gen3 Supercars
The biggest change in Supercars to date has resulted in the most unpredictable season in years, but what do the drivers really think about their new rides? Find out how they compare.
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The biggest change in Supercars to date has resulted in the most unpredictable season in years, but what do the drivers really think about their new rides?
The 2023 Supercars Championship heralded a new era of Australian motorsports with the introduction of the third generation of vehicles, aptly titled Gen3.
The Gen3 cars are the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang, with the race cars designed to be closer to their road going counterparts than ever before.
But it hasn’t been a smooth transition, especially for Ford drivers.
After 15 races no Ford driver has crossed the finish line in first place, with Cam Waters’ win in race 1 coming as a result of disqualifications to the first pair across the line Shane van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney.
This masthead quizzed some of the biggest names on the Supercars circuit to find out what they really thought about their new cars.
CHAZ MOSTERT
“They’re definitely a lot different than what we’re used to with the Gen2. First of all, they absolutely look fantastic, they look like a kind of beefed-up road car model which is what they’re supposed to represent, obviously being the shapes of a Mustang or Camaro,” Mostert said.
“So that side’s great. For me at the moment, I’m trying to get my head around it still at this stage. It’s so different than last year’s car with the philosophy of having such a high aerodynamic car to a very low one.
“But it’s like anything when you develop a new product, you’re going to have some teething issues along the way. But I must say this year the racing has been pretty good all the way up and down the field.
“It’s been really close and one tenth of a second at the last event could have moved you six or seven positions, so it’s pretty cool how tight it is in our category.”
JACK LE BROCQ
“They’ve been really good, I really enjoy driving them. They’re awesome to drive, they move around a lot and they’re hard to drive, they make it difficult to put in a consistent lap,” Le Brocq said.
“They definitely use the rear tyre harder than what we have been used to in the past.
“The team here at Matt Stone Racing and Truck Assist are doing a great job, they’ve built some really good race cars over the break and out a lot of time and effort into it so I think as a team we’re doing a great job.”
TODD HAZELWOOD
“The new Gen3 equipment for Supercars has been a real challenge. From our side on the Ford program with Cooldrive Racing it’s been a steep learning curve and the unique thing for us as a team is we’re the only single car team in pit lane, so the rate of learning for us has been very slow as opposed to the two-car and four-car teams,” Hazelwood said.
“We’ve had to bite our tongue a little bit and be patient, we’ve shown really good potential at some key events. We’re probably been a little bit inconsistent for our liking.
“Obviously the big thing with the parity adjustment for the Ford Mustang was very much an unknown change.
“It creates a whole new element from a driver’s perspective, sort of expecting the unknown, I’m not really sure what it’s going to do and how much that affects our prior knowledge coming into this weekend and it may create more problems.
“It could be an interesting space to watch and hopefully from a Ford point of view it gives us a good advantage and we can move forward in the field.”
MARK WINTERBOTTOM
“They’re really good to drive but they’ve been hard to set up, you can be good one day and bad the next – it’s so finicky,” Winterbottom said.
“They look amazing, almost like something you’d want to keep in your garage and not use because they look so good. Every round you drive gives you different feedback and it’s good for the sport.”
SHANE VAN GISBERGEN
“They’re different. I guess they look good and they sound alright, but they’re very different to what we’ve had in the past,” van Gisbergen said.
“It’s been a weird year, it’s already June and we’re only on the fifth race so it’s a bit weird that we haven’t done much racing this year.
“We sort of haven’t had much time to learn, it feels like, so we’re still trying to figure it out and figure out what makes the car fast.”
BRYCE FULLWOOD
“The Gen3 car has been a big learning curve for all teams this year, it’s a completely new car and we’re all still wrapping our heads around it and some teams are getting around it faster than others,” Fullwood said.
“But one thing that’s been really evident, I think with this Gen3 car, is because the cars are so similar the order is getting really chopped up quite a lot.
“From day to day we’re seeing the order really all over the place, we had Mark Winterbottom win a race in Darwin and then he came 20th or something in the next race. And then Cam Waters was on pole one day and he was down the back the next day.
“That just goes to show how competitive the series is, but also with the cars at the moment everyone’s got really good potential so if you do a good job you can be at the front and I think that’s awesome.”
JAMES GOLDING
“It’s a bit different but nothing crazy. If someone got in and drove it how you drove the last Supercars you’d be there abouts, but it’s a bit more difficult to nail a lap now,” Golding said.
“It makes it exciting and challenging at the same time. There’s still lots of things we want to try and improve on the cars but we’re progressing with that every race.”
NICK PERCAT
“So far our Ford Mustang has been good. Everything we have control of with the chassis setup and stuff has been quite good and it’s been fun to drive,” Percat said.
“I think if this week after Darwin we have a little bit of parity adjustment just to try and get the cars, or two manufacturers a bit closer, then we’ll see how it goes.”
TIM SLADE
“It’s not chalk and cheese to what we had, there’s just a lot of little differences,” Slade said.
“It has become the new norm pretty quickly, it depends on the track you’re on – even in Darwin it doesn’t feel too dissimilar to how they were.”
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Originally published as What the drivers really think: Mid-season report on Gen3 Supercars
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