Supercars Townsville
Ford Supercars teams still disgruntled with aero
The new Ford aero package looks to have done little to ease parity concerns in the Supercars paddock after debuting in Townsville today.
Andrew van Leeuwen
Edited: Jul 7, 2023, 8:58 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The 11 Mustangs in the field all rolled out with a new rear aero package in practice today off the back of a post-Darwin parity review.
The rear wing was repositioned and fitted with a small gurney flap while the boot spoiler was made taller and wider.
That gave hope to the Ford teams that issues with rear aero balance, and subsequently rear tyre life.
Initially the new package prompted concerns from some Chevrolet teams with fears that it would give the Ford drivers too much of an advantage.
However, come Friday evening it is a number of Ford teams that are unhappy after the first two practice sessions with the new package.
Opinions expressed to Motorsport.com ranged from the package not making any difference, to the drivability of the car being worse than before.
There were just two Ford drivers in the top 10 in practice 1 and three in practice 2, Cam Waters the only driver to make the top three.
It's understood that extensions to the wing, to effectively make it wider, were trialled by both Tickford and Ford homologation team Dick Johnson Racing last week.
The extensions were seemingly in the mix to be used given Supercars announced that the width of the wing would change in its own press release.
However the width didn't change, suggesting the decision to stick with the original width was made following DJR's back-to-back test at Queensland Raceway.
Theories that could help solve the issue are now unable to be checked in Townsville given the next session is qualifying for race 1.
There was a flurry of activity around the Ford garages following practice 2 this evening, including a meeting between Supercars CEO Shane Howard, Head of Motorsport Adrian Burgess, Walkinshaw Andretti United co-owner Ryan Walkinshaw, WAU team principal Bruce Stewart, Tickford co-owner Rod Nash and Tickford CEO Tim Edwards.
Waters offered a somewhat diplomatic take on the issue when speaking on the record following practice, suggesting that set-ups used to mask the previous issues were affecting the cars with the new package.
"Everyone was telling me how much downforce I was going to get and I got out there and I was P20. It was a bit of a shock in practice 1," he said.
"It's been pretty evident that the Fords have been struggling under brakes and to the corner. A lot of our set-up traits, all the Fords would have been trying to tune that out of the cars.
"It's awesome that Supercars found a few things wrong and it wasn't us Ford drivers going crazy. It's definitely a different package. We're just kind of undoing a few things we were doing to mask out issues before.
"It wasn't just bolt on some grip and away you go.”
A sterner test, and a better opportunity to understand the competitiveness of the Mustang and the Camaro, will be tomorrow afternoon’s opening 250-kilometre race around the Reid Park circuit.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Jack Miller takes Supercars ride with van Gisbergen
Next article Townsville Supercars: Waters tops qualifying, Kostecki misses Shootout
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Andrew van Leeuwen
Toby Price explains 'unfortunate' Mitsubishi split
Dakar
Dakar
Dakar
Toby Price explains 'unfortunate' Mitsubishi split
Supercars parity review begins
Supercars
Supercars
Supercars parity review begins
SRO set for bigger Australian GT presence
GT World Challenge Australia
GT World Challenge Australia
SRO set for bigger Australian GT presence
Latest news
Kaden Honeycutt wins incident-free Phoenix NASCAR Truck race, extends points lead
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck
Phoenix
1 h
Kaden Honeycutt wins incident-free Phoenix NASCAR Truck race, extends points lead
GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
6 h
GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend
Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance
WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 7 h
Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole
Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
11 h
Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe