That’s the message from team boss Barry Ryan, who made a mid-year call to join the new-for-2026 alliance of GM teams having initially rebuffed the concept.
Erebus has endured a difficult start to the season with second-year driver Cooper Murray and rookie Jobe Stewart, and is currently last of the two-car squads in the teams’ standings.
Ryan reported encouraging signs last time out in Townsville and expressed confidence the squad is on track to again be a contender at the Bathurst 1000.
The GM deal gives Erebus’ drivers and engineers access to setups, data and video from all Chevrolet squads, including Team 18 and its spearhead Anton De Pasquale.
“It helps you sanity check some things, especially when Anton gets a result like [Saturday],” Ryan told Speedcafe.
“You go, ‘right, where did the result come from?’ And you can see what they’ve done and whether it’s much different.
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“[But] to be honest, we’re all in a pretty small [setup] window and it’s down to driver preference stuff.
“The drivers have to develop their own personality to go with the car and extract the most out of that.
“You can’t just put the same setup in as somebody else and expect them to be able to drive it.”
Erebus blasted out of the blocks at the start of the Gen3 era in 2023 with third-year drivers Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown, and an engineering group that made the most of the change.
“A few years ago we didn’t need it because we had some really experienced drivers or third-year drivers, and a new car that no one had an idea about,” Ryan added.
“But now we’re down to the fine details and every team has swapped drivers and mechanics and engineers. Everybody knows everything about everybody’s business.
“So there’s so much emphasis on the driver now, getting the most out of it.”
Ryan noted the drivers must not only work with their engineers to refine the setups to suit their own style, but also maximising what they have on track.
“[On Sunday] in qualifying when the track conditions changed a bit, some of the experienced drivers were on the radio saying, ‘leave my car, just let me drive it’,” he said.
“When the going gets tough, they have to dig deep.
“It’s just teaching these guys that’s what they have to do. It’s not just praying for the car to be better. You’ve got to extract something yourself.”
Erebus is believed to hold contract options over both Murray and Stewart for next season.
Although there is already plenty of speculation around Murray’s future, Ryan said a call is yet to be made.
“We want to win championships again,” he said.
“So we want to make sure that they understand what we want out of them and we need to make sure that we can give them what they want.
“I’d love to have these two here for another few years, because that’s how you build it up.
“It took Brodie and Will two or three years to really hit their straps and Cooper’s only his second year and Jobe in his first.
“I’d love to have them, but we’ve got to get results. It’s a results-driven sport.”
Erebus boss Barry Ryan makes bull riding cameo in Townsville
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