Ryan and Klimenko appeared on Friday’s Fox Sports broadcast from Bathurst in their first major interview since Speedcafe broke the news of Kostecki’s departure.

The pair were unable to shed much light on the details of the split, but did offer an emotional insight into the personal toll it has taken.

While much of the silence is due to contract negations, it’s an open secret that the issue centres on a breakdown in the relationship between Kostecki and Ryan.

While a return currently seems out of the question, both Ryan and Klimenko left the door open when asked directly by Fox Sports presenter Jess Yates if Kostecki will race an Erebus car again.

“It’s not up to us,” said Ryan.

“It’s not in our hands,” added Klimenko.

Unable to comment further on the Kostecki situation, Ryan instead focussed on the future of the team with new drivers Jack Le Brocq and Todd Hazelwood.

• Hazelwood embracing Erebus pressure

He says that, with much of the team unchanged except for drivers and sponsors, there is no reason not to be contending for wins again.

“Todd stepped into the team at the test day; he went and saw [race engineer] George [Commins] a couple times in Queensland and got his head around it,” he said.

“He’s a very focused guy and I think he can’t believe he’s got this opportunity.

“We are the best team in pitlane at the moment and we’ve got the best cars. [Todd] and Jack have got the opportunity to win some races and that’s what we want to see them do, so they can prove to people who might knock them, how good they are.

“We’ve got confident in our equipment and confidence in our team, and the two drivers we’ve picked. So if we can keep putting it together like we did last year, there its absolutely no reason why we can’t win races.

“I don’t want to say it’s up to Todd and Jack, but they’ve got to really the rise to the occasion as much as we’ve got to keep out momentum.”