Chaz Mostert says he wants to see Shane van Gisbergen stay in Supercars, after the now three-time champion cast doubt on his long-term future in the category.
Notwithstanding that the length of his current contract with Triple Eight Race Engineering is not known, those comments mean it is therefore conceivable that he could be off to race in another category, in another region, as soon as 2024.
He could thus potentially be the second recently-crowned back-to-back-to-back champion to exit Supercars in barely three years, given Scott McLaughlin did that when he became one of Team Penske’s IndyCar drivers at the end of 2020.
Mostert hopes that is not the case.
“I’d personally love him to stay,” said the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver.
“It’s the same with Scotty before he went overseas.
“I want to race the best guys not only in Australia but in the world, and I look at Shane and Scotty like they are; some of the best race car drivers I’ve ever versed.”
Van Gisbergen has won a record 21 races out of the 32 which have been held thus far in this Repco Supercars Championship season.
Mostert so happens to be next-best on that metric, with four victories in his Mobil 1 Optus ZB Commodore and, like his rival at Red Bull Ampol Racing, hopes that Gen3 is a reset for the field.
“It probably breaks a lot of us drivers’ hearts this year that we haven’t been able to pressure Shane and been able to race him the way he wants to be raced, and keep him honest in the championship and that dream of bringing it down to the last race like we’ve seen plenty of years in the past,” added the two-time Bathurst 1000 winner.
“I don’t know if that’s just a car thing and where the cars have got to, but I’m sure that Gen3 is another opportunity like when it went to [Car of The Future, in 2013] when it took everyone two years to work out the set-ups of the cars and how to get the most out of them.
“So, I think that first year of [COTF], we had 10 or 13 different winners from the category and I think that’s what all the fans want to see.
“It doesn’t matter who they’re backing, they want to know their driver and team has a chance, and probably the last two years it’s obviously been dominated.
“You can’t take away anything from Shane – he’s probably one of the best drivers in the world and he does a fantastic job – but we need to step up as drivers and hopefully as a category.
“Hopefully, next year, it’s a good opportunity for us to work hard over the break and come out swinging because it’s a good opportunity to put the pressure on this guy.”
While van Gisbergen has romped to the 2022 title, which will officially be his once the Valo Adelaide 500 is completed, Shell V-Power Racing Team boss Ryan Story has ventured that there would “probably be a different outcome” if McLaughlin was still in the championship.
Van Gisbergen’s own boss, Jamie Whincup, says the Kiwi is just doing his job.
Discussion about this post