It’s a savvy move by the Jamie Whincup-led team that returns the spotlight to the key storyline of the 2026 driver market: GM’s need for a star following T8’s impending defection to Ford.
That story has been rolling since GM’s initial approaches to both Feeney and Brown as part of an alleged poaching raid on the team in the direct aftermath of the Blue Oval bombshell.
Cam Waters was then targeted before he re-signed with Tickford Racing and there were rumours about Chaz Mostert too – despite being contracted to Walkinshaw for another season.
With Brodie Kostecki and Matt Payne already locked into Dick Johnson Racing and Grove Racing respectively, the top six drivers in the current standings are all off limits.
The very premise that GM needs to lure a star, though, of course assumes the drivers already locked into Camaros for next year are not up to it.
Leading those who could rightly take umbrage to that is Anton De Pasquale, whose strong start to life at Team 18 gives hope that he is the man for the job with the General.
De Pasquale, 29, was of course long touted as a future Supercars champion.
Returning from a stint in junior open-wheel racing in Europe, he showed plenty of speed in Super2 and then developed strongly through three years in Supercars at Erebus Motorsport.
Snapped up by Dick Johnson Racing as Scott McLaughlin’s heir apparent, a four-year stint at the famed Ford team failed to deliver the results either party wanted.
While the team had clearly slipped from its Penske-propelled glory years, it left questions over whether the driver has the race craft, consistency and determinedness to be a champion.
Team 18, though, saw what it wanted and pounced – copping a barrage of fan backlash for ditching 2015 champion Mark Winterbottom to take a punt on change.
Team principal Adrian Burgess was a driving force behind that decision and is convinced De Pasquale is a genuine star who will shine with the right equipment beneath him.
“It was a very quick and easy conversation last year when we decided to go with him, and he decided to come to us,” Burgess told Speedcafe.
“Anton is doing exactly what we thought he would but we’re still not probably giving him the best car.
“That’s why I say he’s definitely a star. With the car we’re giving him at the moment, he’s doing a bloody good job. Our job is to give him a better car.”
De Pasquale has outshone well-credentialed teammate David Reynolds from the outset of the 2025 season.
Starting the year with a string of top 10 finishes, De Pasquale scored podiums at the most recent rounds in Darwin and Townsville and now sits seventh in the standings.
There’s so far been no changes to his tally of 16 career poles and nine race wins – stats that sum up De Pasquale’s reputation as a better qualifier than racer.
But a pair of aggressive overtakes on the way to a third-place finish on the Friday in Townsville showed, as commentator Mark Skaife put it, “some real mongrel” that many have longed to see.
“He hasn’t won a race for us yet, but he’s won nine in his career, so we know the guy can win races – we’ve got to give him the equipment,” Burgess continued.
“We’re getting closer and closer to that and his relationship with Donners (engineer Andrew Donnelly) and his crew, they’ve gelled very quickly and it’s a very good relationship.
“We think he’s a star, of course we do. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have signed him.”
When Team 18 signed De Pasquale, neither party knew it would be taking over the mantle of GM’s leading strike force from a defecting Triple Eight.
The increased resources and expectations that the homologation team status brings now present as a chance for both team and driver to prove their doubters wrong.
The driver market meanwhile continues in earnest with five of the eight seats in Camaros for next year currently uncertain, including the second at Team 18.
Charlie Schwerkolt’s team continues to hold an option on incumbent Reynolds but its reluctance to commit to the 40-year-old is stoking rumours that change could be afoot.
Burgess is known to be an advocate for Porsche champion Harri Jones, who will make his long-awaited Supercars debut as co-driver to De Pasquale this year.
Out-of-contract PremiAir Racing driver James Golding is among others said to be in the mix as the driver merry-go-round reaches top speed.
“We’re not getting wrapped up in whatever the media wants to write about the silly season,” added Burgess of the second seat.
“We’re focused on doing the job here, making sure commercially we’re in the right place going forwards and improving the car.
“[The job is] trying to be quicker and move up the pit lane in both the drivers’ and the teams’ championship.”
Team 18 is currently seventh in the teams’ championship, with the remaining 2026 GM squads Matt Stone Racing, PremiAir and Erebus Motorsport sitting eighth through 10th.
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