Supercars drivers are set to be challenged come the closing stages of this afternoon’s race at the Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint thanks to the traits of their new Gen3 race cars.

After events in Newcastle and Albert Park, Wanneroo represents yet another type of circuit to tame, including the tricky uphill esses section and its abrasive surface.

Championship leader Brodie Kostecki, who was third-quickest in practice and would go on to qualify second for Race 7, highlighted the ability to be speedy across all 42 laps which make up any of this weekend’s three races as an unknown.

“You’re definitely relying a lot more on mechanical grip,” the Erebus Motorsport driver told Speedcafe after practice when comparing the Gen2 experience to Gen3.

“This track is a bit of a medium-speed track, so it’s right on the edge of the aero window of last year’s cars where the car would actually generate downforce.

“Going up through you the esses into [Turns] 3, 4, 5, 6, there’s obviously no aero on these cars so you’re kind of drifting around quite a bit to pull a lap time out of them.

“When you’re racing, you’re not going to be able to do that.

“We’ll just have to have to see how it all plays out. I did a few laps in the car and it didn’t seem too bad, so we’ll just see what happens and see if we have one of the ones that hangs on.”

Practice pace-setter David Reynolds, who is set to start Race 7 from third, told Speedcafe, “The Gen3 is a lot different to drive around here.

“Obviously, it’s less aero so it feels like we’re going a bit slower through some of the corners, but overall, it’s quite an exciting lap.

“It’s quite lively on the throttle getting out of the corners, which was like that last year, but not on the scale that we have now.”

However, the Grove Racing driver said that, in some aspects, Gen3 is not necessarily a more difficult car to drive at Wanneroo.

“I wouldn’t say we’re working harder,” he added.

“I don’t know why but those other cars were just always on the knife edge.

“This is just a different sort of feel and a different knife edge.

“For me, it’s actually not that hard. It’s sort of happening slower, but it’s going to happen more often.”

Race 7 is officially scheduled to start at 15:45 local time/17:45 AEST.