Motorsport news: Mark Skaife responds after Shane van Gisbergen breaks silence on media snub
Supercars great Mark Skaife has reached out to Triple Eight in a bid to clear the air over his criticism of Shane van Gisbergen’s post-race media conduct in Newcastle
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Supercars great Mark Skaife has reached out to Triple Eight management in a bid to clear the air over his on-air criticism of Shane van Gisbergen’s post-race media conduct in Newcastle, claiming there was “nothing spiteful” intended.
Declaring he did not want the furore to overshadow the debut of the Supercars Gen3 era in the opening race of the year, Skaife said he had contacted Triple Eight boss Jamie Whincup and technical director Jeromy Moore to discuss the issue.
Van Gisbergen hit back at Skaife in a lengthy social media post on Monday night, labelling the comments from the Fox Sports commentator as a “real kick in the teeth”.
Skaife and fellow commentator Garth Tander were critical of van Gisbergen’s behaviour in his post-race media conference after his Sunday Newcastle win when he curtly declined to answer questions about the race.
Van Gisbergen explained his “adopted media strategy” stemmed from “saying too much publicly” last Friday about the heat of the cars, which had “upset some of the top brass”.
Former Ford rival and triple Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin and former driver Russell Ingall were among those to offer their support for van Gisbergen.
Five-time Supercars champion Skaife said his comments had not intended to be a personal attack, only highlighting the “expectation” van Gisbergen had as the defending champion to be an ambassador for the sport.
“I normally cop flak from everybody for how much support and how complimentary I am of Shane and his performances,” Skaife said.
“Normally when I compliment him on his performances in the car everyone smashes me, saying ‘You’re a Triple Eight fan’ or ‘You’re a van Gisbergen fan’.
“I made sure that my comments the other day were not from (the point of view of) being a board member or hierarchy in any way from Supercars.
“I was making a comment as a Fox Sports commentator regarding what the expectation is of a champion, of an ambassador for our sport. That was simply it.
“There was nothing spiteful (intended), I certainly didn’t want him to feel like I had kicked him in the teeth for instance. It wasn’t that.
“I was making a point that there was a responsibility and a duty under the normal conditions that we play in and that was all.”
In addressing the furore on social media, van Gisbergen said he understood it was “his duty to represent the sport in a good light as champion”, but he was not going to “pretend it’s all roses when it’s not”, referring to his critique of the new Gen3 cars.
Skaife said the on-air panel discussion would have moved on quickly to dissecting the race had it not been for van Gisbergen’s media conference stance.
“If you play out how the press conference would normally run, we would have come back to the desk off the back of the press conference and basically spoken purely about the quality of that race and what had gone on,” Skaife said.
“But we ended up, when Shane refused to answer the question - I tried to do it in the most balanced way that I know - meaning at no point have I ever discredited or been critical of his performance in the car, at all.
“I have been to lots of press conferences over the years (of) mine where I didn’t want to be there - and I put my hand up, totally, that sometimes I could be hard to deal with if it was a bad day, there is no doubt about that stuff.
“But if you compare it to other sports and you think about the captain and coach of a rugby league team that might have lost or got a hiding, they still have to front and talk about it.”
Skaife said he had since reached out Whincup and Moore to discuss the issue and hoped to sit down with the team or van Gisbergen ahead of the next race at the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.
“I called Jamie and Jeromy to say how do you want me to move forward,” Skaife said.
“I made the offer to fly up to Brisbane. I had a really good open discussion with Jeromy and Jamie, Jamie as the CEO of the business and Jeremy the technical director, to talk about the issue with Shane.
“It was a very open and honest discussion and where we finished was Jamie was going to talk to Shane and we would meet up going into the Grand Prix. That’s where I left it and I haven’t spoken to them again, we just have a couple of text exchanges.”
The Sunday press conference furore capped a dramatic weekend for Triple Eight after van Gisbergen and teammate Broc Feeney were disqualified from a 1-2 finish in the first race on Saturday for a breach relating to the driver cooling system, which the team is set to appeal.
SVG BREAKS SILENCE ON MEDIA SNUB AFTER DQ FURORE
—Callum Dick
Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen has poured his heart out on Instagram, explaining why he was so curt in his post-race press conference after Sunday’s race at Newcastle.
Van Gisbergen, 33, is a traditionally private person who, as he explained repeatedly after his thrilling victory on Sunday, prefers to do his “talking on the track”.
But the Red Bull rockstar offered fans a peek behind the curtain on Monday night with a long post to social media explaining his reaction to questions on Sunday and, in general, over the past few months.
“Sorry for this long post, I thought I’d share some thoughts seeing as I kept most things to myself yesterday,” van Gisbergen wrote.
“Most people probably have noticed I have been pretty quiet publicly over the past couple of months. My purpose of writing this is not to ‘explain myself’ nor to expect sympathy for the public bashing that some of us drivers get, I guess I’ve always been told like most of us as kids ‘If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all.’ I will never forget I’m in an extremely fortunate position of being a V8 Supercar driver, my dream job.”
The three-time champion had notably tried to stay as quiet as possible when asked about the development of the Gen3 Chevrolet Camaro ahead of the season opener in Newcastle.
As the sport’s reigning champion and figurehead for Triple Eight, the Chevrolet homologation team, his silence on the subject was conspicuous.
“It’s not a secret I haven’t been a fan of the way the Gen3 car feels and drives, and behind closed doors I’ve been pretty critical of things and tried to make it better, firstly with feedback to the category in the prototype testing and now with my team trying to make the race spec car to my liking,” van Gisbergen explained.
“The category seems to think our complaints and gripes with the car will ‘make better racing’ if we are struggling and we are told to be positive and show the sport in a good light, which of course I understand the last part. I try to be as neutral as I can with my critiques of the car, I act with the intention of representing the drivers trying to make the car better for everyone.”
Many fans felt van Gisbergen’s silence in Sunday’s press conference was in reaction to a supposed talking-to from Supercars officials, in relation to his criticism of the Gen3 cars.
The Kiwi went on to confirm as much in his Instagram post.
“As much as I don’t have a good feeling with the car at the moment it drops perfectly into my strengths - Hard to drive, on edge, hard on tyres. Perfect for me! So what am I complaining about? I guess I want not only myself, but all drivers to be getting out of the car raving about how awesome and fun it is to drive. Which is something that’s not really happening now,” he said.
“Over the weekend I probably said a bit too much publicly on Friday about the heat of the cars, although it did prove fruitful getting extra cooling for the drivers. Many still struggled, including myself with the heat. Unfortunately that upset some of the top brass and hence my adopted media strategy for Sunday ‘if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say it at all’. I just knuckled down and drove my arse off on track.”
Van Gisbergen’s press conference “strategy” received mixed reviews from fans, pundits and stakeholders.
Many fans, on both sides of the Chevy-Ford divide, empathised with van Gisbergen and felt he was well within his rights to respond as he did, given how they felt he had been treated by Supercars.
One person who did not take kindly to the Red Bull star’s curt responses was Supercars legend and Fox commentator, Mark Skaife.
“He has a duty under that scenario - as one of the highest paid – the absolute bloke who’s been the benchmark operator, there’s no one in this industry that in any way, shape or form would ever contend on his driving talent and his incredible talent and his ability is extraordinary,” Skaife said on broadcast.
“But you do, off the track, have a duty – and that (behaviour) is not right.
“You never heard an Allan Moffat or Russell Ingall not answer a question in a press conference. They might have been not as liked, for instance, as a Peter Brock – who was the golden child of this stuff – but at any point there is a duty.”
Van Gisbergen labelled Skaife’s comments a “kick in the teeth”.
“I understand it’s my duty to represent the sport in a good light as Champion, I will do that to the best of my ability by being myself off track, racing hard on track for my team members, team partners and our fans,” he wrote.
“It was a real kick in the teeth hearing those comments from a 5 time champion – someone I look up to and respect. I am not going to pretend it’s all roses when it is not.
“The messages I have received today from fans, friends, colleagues and media members has been surprising and amazing. I was pretty down last night so to have such support today from the people that matter is a great feeling.
“I love my team, they have been awesome this last couple of months helping me prepare and be at my best at Newcastle. I can’t thank them enough.
“See you at the GP. SVG.”
DQ FIRE RAGES THROUGH V8s
Cabin temperature was the hot topic of conversation at the Supercars season opener in Newcastle and the fire is set to rage through the week as Triple Eight contests its Race 1 disqualification.
Shane van Gisbergen had a perfect weekend double ripped from his clutches after race stewards ruled to DQ both he and teammate Broc Feeney for mounting a cooling system in the wrong area ahead of Saturday’s race.
Tickford star Cam Waters was elevated to Race 1 winner but Triple Eight will go to war this week and argue its case for a reversal.
But Tickford boss Tim Edwards is adamant the correct call was made.
“No – I think it was clear to everybody that there was a breach of the rules,” he told News Corp Australia.
“There’s hundreds and hundreds of rules in the rule book and we’re obliged to abide by all of them. That was their decision not to follow the rules.
“There’s plenty of other rules in there that you would describe as ‘petty’ so to speak, but you have to abide by all the rules, not just the ones you choose to follow.”
Triple Eight had put cabin temperature on the agenda even before landing in Newcastle, and van Gisbergen used his press conference platform on the Friday after practice to again question the heat.
Supercars responded by allowing teams to add heat shielding to their cars – something a few teams took advantage of, but not Tickford.
“We didn’t need any additional shielding, because our drivers were comfortable as they were,” he said.
“Why add weight to the car if we didn’t need to?
“I know there was a Ford driver (on Saturday) that struggled with the heat, but he struggled for a similar reason as to Triple Eight I would suggest.”
That reason? The cooling system.
Teams were given an option to choose between last year’s cooling system and the new ChillOut system pioneered by Triple Eight and Erebus.
ChillOut cannot supply cool air to drivers’ helmets, while the sealed mini aircon system does.
The Red Bull drivers both felt the heat in Newcastle and so-too did the Coca Cola Camaros at Erebus – Will Brown needing medical attention overnight Saturday after emerging from his car looking worse for wear.
Post-race Sunday, Grove Racing’s David Reynolds spoke briefly about wanting cooler air funnelled into his helmet: “All I was doing was trying to survive”.
WAU runner-up Chaz Mostert meanwhile, using a different cooling system, felt fine.
Edwards suggested the evidence was clear.
“You don’t know what every team is doing but on the surface, I think it’s to do with the driver cooling system more than anything else to do with the car,” Edwards said.
“They had made a decision prior to this to not put a more efficient system in their car. That was their decision in the beginning and then they made a subsequent decision to band aid the first decision and this is the result of it.”
Regardless of where Triple Eight’s appeal lands, Edwards said Tickford still had some work to do if his team is to take the fight up to the all-conquering Red Bulls this season.
“It’s certainly great for us and for Ford that we’ve drawn first blood so to speak. The first Gen3 race victory goes to Ford, that’s pretty special,” he said.
“It’s a momentous day and a great way for us to start the season. But they were very quick in the race and we have a bit of work to do.
“It’s nice to start our season like that, but there’s a long way to go.”
HAS ANYONE SEEN DJR?
The usual suspects were duelling at the top of the grid during the opening round of the Supercars season in Newcastle.
All except for Dick Johnson Racing.
The most disappointing performance of the weekend undoubtedly went to the Shell V-Power Racing team, which failed to make the Top Ten Shootout on both days and left Newcastle ranked 10th of 12.
That’s not the place for a perennial title challenger to be.
The team is struggling to find the kind of pace that fellow Ford teams Tickford and Walkinshaw Andretti United were able to display with Cam Waters and Chaz Mostert.
Thankfully it’s only the opening round of the season. There’s plenty of kilometres to cover between now and Adelaide in November.
Will Davison and Anton De Pasquale are too talented to be languishing outside the top 10. But something has to change soon if DJR is to put up a genuine title challenge in 2023.
RECORD CROWD IN NEWCASTLE
Supercars fans voted with their feet in the Steel City and it could be crucial to the event’s future.
The buzz around Gen3 began with a record crowd at the official test day in Sydney last month and continued into the season opener at Newcastle.
More than 167,000 people piled into the Newcastle 500 over three days – the largest crowd since Supercars’ Newcastle debut in 2017.
After three-and-a-half years away, Supercars officials were thrilled with the reception and it comes at the perfect time.
The series is about to begin discussions with the NSW Government and Newcastle City Council to extend the Newcastle 500.
Going to the table with a record crowd number in the back pocket is a good way to get the ball rolling.
Well done, Supercars fans.
SVG IN NO MOOD TO TALK
A bristly Shane van Gisbergen refused to answer questions from journalists after Sunday’s thrilling victory on the streets of Newcastle, leaving his beaten rival to heap praise at the feat of the reigning champion.
After van Gisbergen nudged his way past Chaz Mostert and raced home to win Race 2 at Newcastle, the Triple Eight star was in little mood to talk through his victory in the post-race press conference.
“All our talking was done on the track today,” van Gisbergen said.
He repeated that line on multiple occasions as journalists asked for his opinion over the Race 1 disqualification, which Triple Eight intends to challenge this week.
When pressed for his take on the passing move he made on Mostert at turn seven late in Sunday’s race, van Gisbergen simply replied: “Yep, it happened. Our talking was done on the track today, thank you.”
He later added: “I tried to just knuckle down and focus (this weekend). I said a lot of stuff yesterday, tried to open up a bit more and that bit me in the ass so I just focused on my driving (on Sunday).”
It left his beaten rival Mostert to praise the three-time Supercars champion for his race-winning drive.
“First of all I want to congratulate Shane and the team. How he drove that race and being able to make those tyres live on that car in that second stint, getting the (lap) times for what he was doing with that car was super impressive,” Mostert said.
“I left it all out there. I tried my hardest to make it mine but the last 10 laps I just really started to hit a cliff ( in tyre degradation).
“Overall (I am) pretty pumped for the weekend. We finished both races. It was super tough around here and I left heaps of skin on the track.”
Mostert will be the championship leader when Supercars returns to Albert Park at the Australian Grand Prix at the end of the month, after notching dual runner-up performances in Newcastle.
“This time last year I was championship leader as well and that was it – I never saw him (van Gisbergen) again,” he joked.
“I just have so much focus on the car that after this weekend (the championship lead) doesn’t mean much.”
Drivers remain split on the significance of the cooling systems within the Gen3 cars.
It was the illegal cooling system installed by Triple Eight that ultimately led van Gisbergen and teammate Broc Feeney to be disqualified from Saturday’s race, pending the team’s challenge.
Sunday’s third-place finisher David Reynolds said he began the race “sh—ing myself” after he toiled in the heat the day before.
“All I was doing was trying to survive and I found it much easier (on Sunday) – it was probably five degrees cooler, so it was an easier day for me,” he said.
“Save a thought for (Grove Racing teammate) Matt Payne, because on the warm-up lap he spewed in his helmet.
“Thank god there was a red flag because he had to go in for a new suit, new helmet – there were chunks of chicken and rice everywhere.”
SCOTTY x LANDO
Former Supercars champ Scott McLaughlin continues to capture fan – and driver – attention overseas.
In two and a bit seasons in IndyCar, the Team Penske ace has already built a sizeable American fan base with his larrikin personality and incredible driving skill.
And his open wheel magic has even caught the eye of McLaren F1 superstar, Lando Norris.
McLaughlin tagged Norris in an Instagram story on Sunday and the Briton shared the post to his six million followers shortly after.
The two share a brief history: McLaughlin narrowly pipped Norris to an iRacing IndyCar pole in 2020, and have enjoyed some casual banter on social media in recent years.
Scotty x Lando. How good.
MERCEDES’ OPEN LETTER
Toto Wolff called it one of the worst days in racing; George Russell said Red Bull will win every race this season.
Bahrain was an eye-opener for Mercedes and the team has felt the brunt of the backlash in the fallout.
So much so the team published an open letter to its fans over the weekend.
“To all our fans. Bahrain hurt,” the letter read.
“It hurt each one of us, who head into every season determined to fight for world championships. It hurt the team as a whole, after pouring so much hard work into a car that hasn’t met our expectations. And we know it hurt you, our fans, too. Your passion and support are so important in driving us forward – and we know that we feel the same pain.”
The team promises no knee-jerk reactions, no instant solutions and a united front in the face of another disappointing season.
This year was to be the one that put Mercedes and Hamilton back in the fight with Red Bull. But this letter is just the latest concession from the team that it has a long road to reach the top of the mountain.
Will Hamilton be there?
RUMOUR MILL: F1 MUSICAL CHAIRS?
We’re one race into the Formula 1 season and teams have already given up on catching the Red Bull juggernaut.
Charles Leclerc is requesting meetings with the Ferrari bosses, Lewis Hamilton is publicly airing his frustration with the Mercedes engineers and fans are swarming to tell Lando Norris he has to leave the McLaren sinking ship.
What does it all lead to? A driver swap.
Hamilton’s contract is up at the end of 2023 and despite all the soothing from Mercedes about an inevitable deal, the seven-time world champ’s patience is clearly running thin.
It’s led more than a few pundits to propose a split between Mercedes and Hamilton – something that would throw open the gates of hell in the F1 paddock.
Ferrari is the mooted landing spot for Hamilton and the Scuderia could have an opening if Leclerc decides he’s had enough.
Would a straight swap be the play? Some seem to think so.
But then there’s Norris.
McLaren knows better than anyone it’s playing with borrowed time when it comes to keeping the star talent.
After the Bahrain debacle few are giving the papaya hope of challenging for best of the midfield, which has to be the minimum benchmark for a team fielding Norris and the top rookie in the paddock, Oscar Piastri.
Norris is highly regarded by every team in the paddock and would likely walk into almost every team except Red Bull or Mercedes. But if the latter loses Hamilton, does it chase Norris?
If we thought the 2022 silly season was a head spinner, just wait for the summer of 2023.
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