The Supercars grid is set. This is how it looks for 2021 after some big off-season moves
Defending champion Scott McLaughlin is gone, so is Team Penske and official Holden involvement. And there’s been some big off-season moves.
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The Supercars grid will look a little different this year.
Defending and three-time series champion Scott McLaughlin is gone, as is the involvement of American motorsport giant Team Penske.
The official Holden Racing Team is no more and a former champion and two-time Bathurst winner has also bid goodbye to full-time racing.
There has been plenty of movement in the Supercars off-season so far.
The Supercars grid is now set. This is how it looks for 2021.
DICK JOHNSON RACING
Will Davison
Anton De Pasquale
There has been a name change and a double-driver change for the champions for 2021.
Former Erebus Motorsport young gun Anton De Pasquale and Supercars journeyman and two-time Bathurst winner Will Davison will race for the Ford squad this year.
After winning three consecutive Supercars championships, Scott McLaughlin has left the series to race full-time in IndyCar in the United States with Team Penske.
McLaughlin’s teammate of the past four years, Fabian Coulthard has also left the team.
The squad has reverted to the name Dick Johnson Racing after Team Penske announced in October it was quitting Supercars after six years in the V8 championship.
TRIPLE EIGHT/ RED BULL AMPOL RACING TEAM
Jamie Whincup
Shane van Gisbergen
Retains the same driver line-up for a fifth year with seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup and Bathurst champion Shane van Gisbergen.
After four years as the factory-backed Holden Racing Team, the squad bid farewell to the official support of Holden with an emotional victory for van Gisberben and Garth Tander at Mount Panorama last year.
Ampol has replaced Holden as the team’s co-naming rights sponsor, but the team will still campaign in a ZB Commodore this year before the new Gen 3 regulations come into effect from 2022.
Triple Eight will sit behind rivals DJR in the pit lane order after finishing second in the team’s championship.
TICKFORD RACING
Cameron Waters
James Courtney
Jack Le Brocq
Tickford Racing has downsized to three cars for 2021 after announcing the departure of Lee Holdsworth after two years with the team in early January.
Cameron Waters, who was second in the drivers’ championship to McLaughlin last year, James Courtney and Jack Le Brocq continue with the Ford squad this year.
Waters is coming off his best season in the series, in which he also finished second in the Bathurst 1000 alongside Will Davison.
EREBUS MOTORSPORT
Will Brown
Brodie Kostecki
It’s a double-driver change for Erebus this year after the departure of De Pasquale to DJR and shock exit of 2017 Bathurst 1000 winner David Reynolds.
Will Brown, 22, and Brodie Kostecki, 23, will take the seats of De Pasquale and Reynolds in 2021, having partnered the departing duo as co-drivers at the Bathurst 1000 last year.
Reynolds and Erebus confirmed in December he was leaving the squad just one year into a bumper 10-year deal, amid reports of tensions within the team.
TEAM 18
Mark Winterbottom
Scott Pye
Team 18 will continue with the same driver line-up for the second year in a row.
Winterbottom and Pye both arrived at the squad as it expanded to a two-car operation in 2020.
The pair both finished just inside the top-10 in the drivers’ championship – Winterbottom 10th and Pye ninth.
WALKINSHAW ANDRETTI UNITED
Chaz Mostert
Bryce Fullwood
Walkinshaw Andretti United retains the same driver line-up in 2021 with Chaz Mostert and Bryce Fullwood.
Fullwood, 22, was awarded a contract extension for 2021 after finishing his rookie year in Supercars with one podium and four top-10 finishes.
Mostert finished an equal-career high fifth in the drivers’ championship in his first year with WAU after crossing from Tickford Racing.
BRAD JONES RACING
Nick Percat
Todd Hazelwood
Macauley Jones
Jack Smith
The Albury-based operation also heads into the 2021 Supercars championship with an unchanged driver line-up.
Percat is back for his fifth year with the team after a career-best finish in the championship last year when he finished seventh.
Hazelwood returns for a second year with BJR, Jones is back for his third full-time season, while 21-year-old Smith re-signed after completing his rookie season last year.
KELLY GROVE RACING
David Reynolds
Andre Heimgartner
A new team name and a new driver in the line-up for 2021.
David Reynolds was confirmed as the rebranded team’s big off-season recruit last week after five years with Erebus Motorsport.
The 2017 Bathurst winner steps into the vacated Ford Mustang seat of Rick Kelly, who announced he was stepping away from full-time driving at the end of last season.
Kelly, the 2006 series champion and two-time Bathurst 1000 winner, has been a fixture in the team since 2009.
Reynolds joins Andre Heimgartner in the driver line-up. Heimgartner, coming into his third year with the team, achieved his best result in the championship last year when he finished 14th in the standings.
Reynolds will be hoping to bounce back from a challenging 2020 when he finished outside the top-10 (12th) in the standings for the first time since 2016.
TEAM SYDNEY
Fabian Coulthard
Garry Jacobson
Fabian Coulthard heads the driver line-up for Team Sydney after five years at DJR Team Penske, which has an all new line-up for 2021.
Coulthard achieved his best result in the championship with the Ford team in 2016 when he finished third, but finished sixth last year as his teammate Scott McLaughlin went on to win his third straight drivers’ crown.
Garry Jacobson was this week confirmed as the second driver at Team Sydney, the last driver to be locked in on the Supercars grid.
Alex Davison and Chris Pither drove for Team Sydney last year.
MATT STONE RACING
Jake Kostecki
Zane Goddard
After sharing a car as rookies last year, Jake Kostecki and Zane Goddard both return with full-time drives for Matt Stone Racing in 2021.
Garry Jacobson departed the MSR line-up after one season with the team.
BLANCHARD RACING
Tim Slade
After a season out of full-time Supercars racing, Tim Slade returns to the main game with Tim Blanchard’s new solo operation.
Slade co-drove with departing Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin in the Bathurst 1000 last year after spending the four previous years with Brad Jones Racing.
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