Shane van Gisbergen declares Gen3 Supercars ‘worse than ever’, hints at new career move

With rumour swirling about his racing future, reigning champion Shane van Gisbergen has delivered a withering spray at the Supercars series that has made him a star.

Fresh from signing a new deal that will keep him with Triple Eight until at least the end of 2024, Shane van Gisbergen has declared “the (Supercars) series is worse than ever” as the three-time champion continues to weigh-up his long term future.

Triple Eight last week announced it had re-signed the Kiwi superstar to a multi-year contract, however it is understood the new deal is a season-by-season extension heavily weighted in van Gisbergen’s favour, should he choose to look elsewhere beyond next year.

The reigning champion hinted as much in an interview with Fox Sports in which he let slip the contract extension meant “at least one more year here (at Triple Eight), which is good”.

Asked to clarify the contract situation, a Triple Eight spokesperson said: “The team signed a multi-year deal with Shane which includes clauses should he decide to move to another category. If he stays with Supercars, he will be driving for Triple Eight.”

With rumours he could drive in NASCAR later this year, van Gisbergen made no effort to hide the fact he had looked at options beyond Supercars for his racing future.

“Obviously there’s attractions and (the) grass is greener at the moment to have a look at new challenges and (I have) had some good chats with some people outside of the sport now I guess,” he said.

“I like the new challenges. I loved doing rally last year, that was cool, and speedway as well.

“I want to do more of that. Maybe more of America. I don’t know if I want to do Europe. America is awesome, a really fun style of racing.”

Shane van Gisbergen celebrates on the podium in Perth. Picture: Daniel Kalisz/Getty

The 33 year old has been critical of the Gen3 product during the early stages of the season but also enjoyed the fresh challenge that has come with mastering a new car.

He has long maintained his future in Supercars, for however long, will only be with Triple Eight, and his love for the team has not diminished – even if he does not agree with the direction the category is headed..

“It’s weird because the series is worse than ever. All the background stuff is really bad, but the team is awesome,” van Gisbergen said.

“I love being part of the team, I’ve loved the challenge this year of the car. The car is difficult but as a driver, it’s the same for everyone.

“It’s a real engineer’s car. You have to make it better than everyone else’s and as the driver you feel like you have less input over it, which is good. I’ve had to get better at my off-track stuff; understand the car more and think about what makes it tick more.”

Shane van Gisbergen.

Asked to elaborate on what about the “background stuff” frustrated him, van Gisbergen said he wanted the category to focus on building its product in Australia and New Zealand before looking further abroad.

“I have to be careful what I say because it gets taken out of context sometimes … yeah, I dunno,” he said.

“It’s weird, in the series, all the stuff that goes on. Especially not going to New Zealand, which I guess is a personal gripe.

“(Talk of) going overseas to Singapore and the Middle East, what is the point? We have new cars which are awesome, we should be going to places like Winton and QR (Queensland Raceway) and taking them to the people and make them fall in love with the sport again.

“We have this awesome new product, why are we going overseas with it?”

With his immediate future locked in behind the wheel of the No. 97 Red Bull Camaro, van Gisbergen maintained he had not given serious thought to his long term racing future.

“Craig (Lowndes) was still competitive into his early to mid-40s, so I’ve got 10 years left. I can do whatever I want until then,” he said.

“I don’t know the answer yet … I’m pretty happy at the moment and things are going well, so I don’t really know.

“Obviously last year was really good and the week after (the final race in) Adelaide I was pretty content, but then a week or two (later) the fire starts burning again and you want to get racing.

“I obviously love winning but I love the racing side of things (more). I don’t think about winning so many Bathursts or championships. Just being part of it and doing well is what I enjoy.”

Originally published as Shane van Gisbergen declares Gen3 Supercars ‘worse than ever’, hints at new career move