Chaz Mostert believes it unreasonable to make too much of radio rants such as that which Cameron Waters delivered during Race 18 of the Supercars Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Waters exploded after he was notified of a penalty for an unsafe release, asking rhetorically “What the f**k is wrong with this sport?” before adding, “They wonder why all their drivers want to f***en leave them.”
One driver considered by most to be more likely to leave Supercars at the end of this year than not is Shane van Gisbergen, who would lament post-race that he had been brought undone by “issues out of our control” which, so he says, is nowadays not unusual.
Even van Gisbergen’s own Team Principal at Triple Eight Race Engineering, Jamie Whincup, rated the three-time champion a fifty-fifty chance of staying in Supercars or going to NASCAR when he spoke to media a day earlier.
There is also speculation about Brodie Kostecki’s long-term future given he will make his NASCAR debut next month, while Waters has expressed a level of interest in racing in that category himself.
Mostert, though, suggested not a lot should be read into the #6 Mustang pilot’s radio blow-up.
“I don’t think it’s fair for people to try and quote what drivers say in the heat of the moment in the race,” opined the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver, a former team-mate of Waters at Tickford Racing.
“There’s probably been a hundred times in a race where I’ve said plenty of things over the radio and called everyone that’s battling or vice versa, or Supercars… It’s what happens in the heat of the moment.
“So I don’t think you can quote word for word when a driver is really angry out there [and] kind of really hold it against them, either.
“We’re racing for positions, we’re racing for trophies, we’re racing for our teams and sponsors; all that kind of stuff.
“Sometimes things are going come out of our mouth.”
While radio transmissions are a standard feature of motorsport telecasts, Supercars tends to air them live whereas Formula 1, for example, broadcast such grabs on a delay and hence has the opportunity to censor them.
Depending on whether or not an exchange is captured in full, important context may be lost, and it is worth noting in the Waters case that the first voice aired was that of his Race Engineer, Sam Potter, who was heard telling his driver, “We’ve got nine laps to go, the category’s a joke, and you’ve been given a five-second penalty for an unsafe release.”
Mostert was asked by Speedcafe for his feelings on live radio transmissions, to which he responded, “It’s the same thing; you could look over my fence into my front yard, but if you talk about what’s in my front yard, that’s kind on you, isn’t it, really?”
Waters was not the only member of the paddock whose coarse language went to air during the telecast of Race 18.
Erebus Motorsport CEO Barry Ryan has been fined $5000, half of which is suspended until year-end on the proviso of community service in motorsport, after repeatedly swearing in an interview conducted shortly after the chequered flag.
“Shane, he can’t keep f***ing doing that shit; it’s bullshit,” declared Ryan after Shane van Gisbergen had repeatedly hit the rear of Erebus’s #9 Camaro before passing Will Brown.
“He hit him up the arse and he passed him; you can’t do that shit, so we’re just going to make sure he gets done this time, and not let off, because we’re sick of it.”
Van Gisbergen would be issued a five-second penalty for “repeated avoidable contact” which cost him the podium position he would have otherwise inherited due to Waters’ sanction.
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