It was confirmed today that Percat will join the T8 fold as Broc Feeney’s co-driver next season, while Scott Pye has been retained alongside Will Brown.

That means Whincup will step down from co-driving duties in the #88, with next season to mark the first since 2006 that he hasn’t started a race for Triple Eight.

The move is understandable given he now holds the managing director role at T8, a team that next year will have three full-time entries in Supercars, as well as homologation team and engine supply duties on behalf of Ford.

At the same time, Whincup has made it clear that his Supercars driving journey is not at a definitive end – with the added caveat that he is not driving either of the Red Bull-backed cars in the next two years.

That is an oddly specific distinction given Triple Eight will field a third SCT Logistics-backed car from next year onwards.

“I’m not saying [this year’s] Bathurst [1000] was my last race in a Supercar,” he stressed as part of the announcement.

“At this stage I will not be driving a Red Bull Ampol Racing race car in the 2026 or 2027 enduros, and right now have no other plans but to continue to be a better managing director.

“I’m not shutting the door on driving ever again, it’s not something to read anything into either, right now [I] have no other plans than managing director of Triple Eight and I’m looking forward to putting everything into that.”

Whincup joined Triple Eight as a driver way back in 2006 after a stop-start beginning to his career that included being fired by Garry Rogers Motorsport at the end of 2003.

His career was revived by Tasman Motorsport in 2005 before the call-up to T8 that yielded a record-setting seven Supercars titles.

He retired from full-time driving at the end of 2021 to take over the MD role at T8 and has partnered Feeney at the enduros ever since.