Tickford Racing’s driver line-up is far from certain for 2019 amid suggestions Richie Stanaway could lose his full-time seat at the Ford squad.

Stanaway has endured a difficult rookie campaign having been elevated from a co-driver role last year into the fourth entry after the team purchased a Racing Entitlements Contract from Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport. 

The Kiwi has however struggled for pace and consistency leaving him 25th in the championship standings having scored a solitary top 10 at Winton.

Next year offers plenty of change at Tickford having elected to hand back one of its RECs, while long serving driver Mark Winterbottom will depart the outfit at the end of the season after 13 years service.

It is also expected that the team will run a customer REC in the guise of Milwaukee Racing. 

While Stanaway is contracted to the team for next year alongside Chaz Mostert and Cameron Waters, it is understood that there is a performance clause in his deal which could open the door for the team to make a switch.

Tickford boss Tim Edwards refused to be drawn into the speculation regarding the future of his driver.

“I’m not going to comment on that everyone knows we have got an agreement with Richie so that is where we sit” Edwards told Speedcafe.com.

Tickford would not be short of candidates to replace Stanaway should the scenario occur.

There are several drivers currently on the grid yet to secure drives for next year including Jack Le Brocq (Tekno Autosports), Lee Holdsworth (Preston Hire Racing), Michael Caruso (Nissan Motorsport) and Andre Heimgartner (Nissan Motorsport).

Stanaway, who has previously starred in GP3 and GP2 has been frustrated by his campaign and at times.

The New Zealander’s emotions boiled over yesterday by lashing out at the stewards when he labelled drive through penalty he received in Race 28 ‘a joke’. 

This weekend Stanaway has shown strong pace and will be looking to continue that in today’s conclusion of the ITM Auckland SuperSprint.