Kostecki will miss at least this month’s season-opener at Mount Panorama although the Chevrolet Camaro which he would have driven rolled out carrying #1 in shakedown mode and testing at Winton in recent days.

The West Australian has driven for Erebus for all but the first three events of his Supercars Championship career so far, his fourth being as co-driver to De Pasquale in the 2020 Bathurst 1000.

The two remain good friends and De Pasquale had an update on ‘Bush’ when he appeared on Nine’s Today show this morning.

“He’s good from that side of things,” said the now Shell V-Power Racing Team driver.

“Obviously, [he is] a really good mate of mine, we co-drove a couple years ago – a few years ago now – so, yeah, just a bit of a mate’s check-in more than anything.

“I don’t really understand what’s happening, I don’t think I really want to because it’s obviously pretty layered and there’s a lot going on.

“But, he’s alright.

“Obviously, it’s a shame not to have the champ on the grid at the first race back so, hopefully, he’s back as soon as possible because you want you want him out there; he’s a fierce competitor.”

De Pasquale was joined on the show by current team-mate Will Davison, who happens to also be a former Erebus driver, but in its previous era running Mercedes out of the Gold Coast rather than General Motors machinery out of Melbourne.

Davison said, “It’s not ideal, but elite sport is full of emotion, it’s full of fiery competitors, and sometimes, you know, politics; so it’s tough.

“I think that he’s been able to win the championship in such a short space says a fair bit.

“But, he’s the benchmark driver; we want the benchmark driver and the champion on the grid.

“He’s the champion, he’s got the #1 sitting in his loungeroom, so he’s happy on that front, but obviously the messy situation, we don’t know anything about.

“But, it’s not new to this sport, but it’s certainly very unfortunate and being talked about quite a lot at the moment.”

Todd Hazelwood will fill in for Kostecki at the Bathurst 500 although, with Jayden Ojeda also cutting laps with Erebus at Winton this week, it would appear the team is preparing for the absence of its championship-winning driver to be a lasting one.