‘Blindsided’: Whincup explains 24-hour GM notice

The shockwaves from the bombshell news are still being felt a month on from the landmark deal becoming public.

GM is urgently searching for a replacement homologation team, a major disagreement has broken out over Ford’s engine supply, and Craig Lowndes’ driving future is unclear.

Initial concerns that GM would pull out of the category entirely because of the move were quashed by its local MD Jess Bala at Sydney Motorsport Park last weekend.

But there was no hiding the fact it had come as a shock to GM that the 16-year partnership between team and marque was coming to an end.

“To be honest we were disappointed with the move, we were surprised,” said GM Australia and NZ MD, Jess Bala, when asked by Speedcafe of the reaction.

“We’d been in discussions with the Triple Eight team around what our future looks like, so we were surprised, yes, and disappointed.”

Lowndes breaks silence on future after Ford bombshell

Whincup affirmed that GM – as well as other stakeholders such as full-time drivers Will Brown and Broc Feeney – were told the day prior to the grand announcement.

“It was good they were disappointed, it meant we provided some value,” he told the TV broadcast of GM’s reaction.

“We had to tell everyone literally 24 hours before we made the announcement. That was a bit of a shock to Will and Broc, they were a little bit blindsided, they didn’t see it coming.”

The seven-time champion delivered the news via a series of teleconference calls from Charlotte, North Carolina, where he took the stage at Ford Performance’s season launch.

Why Triple Eight has dropped GM for Ford

“We’ve got a close relationship and friendships with all these people, so it would have been nice to tell everybody earlier, but the risk of it getting leaked was a high probability,” he added.

“We wanted to maximise the announcement, so when I stood on the stage to say ‘yep, we’re making the big move’, it was new news to everybody, and we were able to achieve that.”

While it is unclear how much longer Triple Eight will carry the GM homologation team duties for, Whincup hopes for a successful end to the relationship.

“We’ll represent the GM brand as well as we possibly can this year and make sure we finish off on a high,” he said.

“There’s a few conspiracy theories out there that we’re going to throw a year, get ready for 2026, but that’s completely not our style.

“We’ll be doing everything we can to have the best year we can in 2025 and then move onto bigger and better in 2026.”