Team 18 to propose Gen3 gearbox fix to Supercars

Pye was unable to complete his full programme at the all-in, pre-season test at the Eastern Creek circuit, his day coming to an end more than an hour early.

The issues was a broken gearbox mount, which is a control part on the new Gen3 cars.

According to the team the issue is far from unexpected – to the point that it has already designed a steel unit that could potentially replace the alloy part currently fitted to the car.

However given it's a control part, the heavy duty replacement can't be employed without being officially green lit by Supercars.

Team 18 team manager Bruin Beasley told Motorsport.com that the drawings will be provided to Supercars so that it can be assessed as a potential control part replacement.

"We thought the mount wasn't going to be up to scratch," he said.

"We thought about it and we've already designed a steel version of it, which we'll propose to use, because we think it will be better.

"We went through this with the Gen2 car. We've spoken to Supercars about it now and they've said, 'send it through to us and give us a look at it'."

As for the impact the breakage has had on Pye's test programme, Beasley said it was a frustrating loss of laps, although it will reflect more on the time sheets than the outright pace of the car.

"The reality is that we already lost an hour through rain, which is not ideal, and we've lost another hour of running," he said.

"What it means is we can't put a green tyre on an have a crack at the end of the day.

"At the moment we're sitting sixth or something, but by the end of the day we'll be 20th, but we could be fifth or sixth. That's all it's really done."