Ford Supercars teams are understood to have met during the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix event over concerns about Gen3 parity.
The matter had been a thorny issue during pre-season, with most of the grievances coming from the Ford side of the divide.
Their contention was a disparity in both aerodynamics and powertrains, which were tested again in airfield running which took place just a week out from Event 1 in Newcastle.
There, the furore died down, with the respective fastest Camaros and Mustangs separated by less than 0.05s in both qualifying sessions around the tight East End street circuit.
However, the matter seems to have reared its head again at Albert Park, a much more open and hence faster track.
Team owners and/or bosses of the Blue Oval teams are believed to have met midway through Saturday at the Beaurepaires Melbourne SuperSprint, during the long gap between the day’s two qualifying sessions in the morning and Race 5 of the season in the evening.
Their concern is thought to be around straight-line speed, with the Camaro claimed to be faster once cars reach higher gears.
That would not be so obvious at the Newcastle East Street Circuit, where average speed is barely above 130km/h, but could well have become apparent at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, where that figure is around 175km/h.
In five races so far this year, a Mustang is yet to be first to the chequered flag, notwithstanding that Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters is officially classified the winner of Race 1.
Qualifying has been somewhat more even, with Chevrolet and Ford scoring a pole position each in Newcastle.
The Bowtie brigade got up three-one on that metric at Albert Park, although two of those Camaro pole positions came on Saturday morning, when the track was drying and the first session started with drivers rolling out on wets.
Furthermore, the mixture of tyre compounds makes it difficult to glean much on parity from pole positions alone, although Camaros did lock out the top five in Qualifying for Race 4.
What is more important with respect to parity is data from particular sectors, based on comments from Ford Performance Motorsports’ Global Director Mark Rushbrook, in Newcastle.
“We cannot form anything about parity based upon what we see on track with the results,” he told Speedcafe.com.
Looking at Qualifying for Race 3, the only qualifying session topped by a Mustang this weekend, pole-sitter Anton De Pasquale was fastest in Sectors 1 and 3 on his fastest lap but, despite also setting a personal-best Sector 2 at the time, was outpaced by Camaro driver Brodie Kostecki to the tune of 0.1695s in that, the fastest sector of the track.
On the other hand, Waters has set the fastest second sector in all three races thus far and, in any event, teams and Supercars have access to far more precise microsector data which they would be studying.
However, with Wanneroo Raceway next on the calendar, and Supercars’ existing parity review system taking in at least three events’ worth of data, there should be no change on the powertrain front before then.
There will, though, be centre of gravity testing conducted with a sample of cars from each side of the manufacturer divide at Tickford’s Campbellfield workshop tomorrow.
What that might expose remains to be seen, although any disparity on that front would likely be slight, given the tightly controlled nature of Gen3 and the fact that engine centre of gravity measurements have already been taken.
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