Chaz Mostert has given a negative assessment of the new Ford Mustang aero package which was implemented following a Supercars parity review.
This afternoon’s encounter at the Reid Park Street Circuit was the first race for the new Mustang aerodynamics, which were intended to address a loss of downforce under brakes.
However, Mostert believes the Ford Supercar is now a relatively challenging one to drive through high-speed corners, and suggested it is still prone to wearing out its rear tyres quicker than the Chevrolet Camaro does.
“To be honest, it feels like we don’t really have a rear wing, so it’s been a bit hectic out there,” he said on television, post-race.
“We’re okay in the slow, mechanical corners, but the really high-commitment brake zones and then obviously the high-speed through the back section, the car just gives away.
“You’ve just got no rear at all, even when you’ve got a good tyre on the car [for] last few laps; it just degrades so much.
“Right at the end there when I had 10 laps better [tyres] than the guys in front, they started to drive away from me again.”
Mostert was the first of the Mustang drivers home, behind Erebus Motorsport’s Will Brown and Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Broc Feeney.
He sidestepped a direct question about whether the new Mustang aerodynamics are an improvement, but suggested there is not much left in his WAU package right now.
“I don’t know,” the two-time Bathurst 1000 winner responded.
“Today was the probably the best result we could have got, for sure; I didn’t even expect to get a trophy today.
“Obviously, our strategy was great, everyone’s going to know that strategy from the Ford camp tomorrow, so no doubt it’s going to be a lot harder work for us tomorrow, but I’ll leave everything else up to the professionals.”
He did acknowledge that there may be some improvement as WAU continues to learn its somewhat new tools, although perhaps not a lot.
“Just keep trying to learn the car a little bit; I suppose there’s still some stuff we could change to make it a bit better or learn,” added Mostert.
“Really, kind of that’s the way I really feel about at the moment; just keep trying to change stuff on the car, see what things do.
“I mean, there hasn’t been really a thing we haven’t changed too much this this whole year, but from Friday practice to today, we made a little bit of improvement to the car, put it in a different window.
“But, if the thing’s just not sticking to the ground – you don’t have much help with that – your window is almost … you know, so small.
“There’s some good Fords out there that are absolutely nailing it, definitely in qualifying, but as you can see, in the race, it’s really hard yakka.”
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