The star driver search has been part of GM’s fresh Supercars attack plan off the back of Triple Eight’s defection to Ford for the 2026 season.

When Triple Eight’s move was announced early last year, GM was aggressive in locking down a number of performance-based assets.

That included prying technical whizz Jeromy Moore out of Triple Eight and into a GM role, successfully blocking KRE from working on Ford’s engine program and ensuring Craig Lowndes remained loyal to the GM brand.

At the same time it made little secret of its desire to fill what will be an undeniable void on the driver front once proven and regular winners Broc Feeney and Will Brown cross the divide to Ford.

It’s an open secret that GM approached a number of top-line drivers last season including the current Triple Eight drivers and the likes of Cam Waters.

As it stands Matt Payne is the latest Blue Oval star in GM’s sights, although any deal would be for 2027 at the earliest with the grid settled for this season.

The push to inject talent into the GM ranks, particularly based on the idea of needing a ‘star’ is known to have ruffled some feathers among the current GM drivers.

But it hasn’t rattled the man expected to spearhead GM’s charge this year – De Pasquale.

In fact the nine-time Supercars race winner says it makes sense that GM would be active in the driver market as it looks to take the fight to both Ford and Toyota.

“It doesn’t concern me too much,” he told the KTM Summer Grill of the star driver talk.

“There’s obviously a lot of truth in that as well, because you do need as many good drivers and good teams as you can in fast cars. Like, that’s just the truth to it.

“And we’re seeing that obviously play out even with Finals and alliances; friendships don’t hurt you if they’re on the right side.

“So yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense. I think we’re very fortunate, we have two front-running drivers in our team, and we can have two cars at the front so that’s sort of our box ticked.

“But what’s the best for their brand is up to them.”

De Pasquale will be paired with veteran David Reynolds this season in what will be the first full year for Team 18 as the factory GM squad.

Reynolds’ future was only determined quite late in 2025 as the team mulled over a single-year option on the Bathurst 1000 winner.

While still capable of running at the front, he is also the oldest driver in the field and would be one of the more obvious candidates to make way should GM land a top driver from another manufacturer, given Team 18’s factory status.

Outside of De Pasquale and Reynolds, the GM line-up includes three of the five rookies that will enter Supercars this season – Zach Bates (Matt Stone Racing), Jobe Stewart (Erebus Motorsport) and Jayden Ojeda (PremiAir Racing).

There are then two more drivers in just their second full season in Cooper Murray (Erebus) and Declan Fraser (PremiAir).

Jack Le Brocq (MSR) is the only other driver apart from De Pasquale and Reynolds in GM’s 2026 line-up to have won races in Supercars.