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With Supercars set to introduce a ‘live’ pit lane in 2024, we ask in this week’s Pirtek Poll if you think the teams’ championship is an underrated title.
As it stands, pit lane order is primarily determined by the preceding season’s teams’ championship results, and hence there is a tangible reward to winning that title.
Next year, assuming the ‘live’ idea comes to pass, the reward beyond the season-opener will be pride only, save for the possibility of any bonuses written into commercial contracts.
But, do you think the teams’ championship-winning squad deserves more recognition?
Presently, it is something of an afterthought; a pursuit which generally only comes into focus once the drivers’ championship is decided, or near enough to.
That is not the case at the moment, with Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki leading Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Shane van Gisbergen by 137 points on the way to the Vailo Adelaide 500, where there are a maximum of 300 points on offer.
In the teams’ standings, Erebus heads Triple Eight by 170 points, a closer contest in relative terms considering there are 576 on the table if a team achieves a perfect score (two one-two finishes) in the City of Churches.
True, the drivers’ title will always be the bigger of the two prizes, at least in the eyes of most who compete in or follow Supercars.
Even Triple Eight Team Principal Jamie Whincup himself told Speedcafe ahead of the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500, “The drivers’ championship is the biggest trophy of the year.
“Second-biggest is Bathurst, and we’re very proud to have that in the cabinet, and then third-biggest is the teams’ championship.”
The Bathurst versus (drivers’) championship debate is one for another day, but does the teams’ championship warrant more attention?
After all, particularly in a championship where sister cars share a pit boom, maximising a team pointscore is even more difficult than maximising a driver pointscore.
That point noted, if even Whincup, for example, cares about the drivers’ championship more, then is the teams’ championship just a by-product of the more important endeavour?
What do you think? Is the teams’ championship an underrated title? Cast your vote below in this week’s Pirtek Poll.
