Will Brown believes the level of competition in Supercheap Auto TCR Australia has risen noticeably since his 2019 title triumph.

The Erebus Motorsport star has returned to the hot hatch category this year, effectively replacing Supercars peer Chaz Mostert in a Melbourne Performance Centre Audi.

One round into the season he sits sixth overall, following finishes of seventh, fourth and 13th at Symmons Plains last month.

It’s a driver from his former HMO Customer Racing team who holds the early advantage, namely Josh Buchan.

“The competition is definitely tougher and I think it’s due to the teams having a better hold on the cars,” Brown said.

“I think HMO did an awesome job of being prepared for the first season by sending over an engineer to Germany to learn the cars before we got started.

“I think a lot of other teams have caught up like Melbourne Performance Centre and Garry Rogers Motorsport, so it’s a harder category to win as many races in that’s for sure.”

To move himself further up the grid, Brown is looking for a looser car to drive.

“I think for me, it’s just making a TCR car as loose as possible to drive, which means the rear-end moves around, then in turn stops you from overheating the front tyres and causing a lot of understeer,” the 23-year-old explained.

“We need to get that out of the Audi, so that it has longevity in the race and doesn’t get understeer towards the end.”

Round 2 of the season unfolds next weekend at Phillip Island, where Brown took two second-place results and then a win in 2019.