Friday’s announcement that current Chevrolet homologation team (HT) Triple Eight will switch to Ford next year has left all parties in an unusual position.
Triple Eight must be voted into the Ford HT role by the existing Mustang teams, while a similar process to appoint a new GM HT will likewise need to take place between the GM squads.
When exactly the voting – and subsequent handovers – will take place is unclear, leaving plenty of questions about what Ford data access Triple Eight will have throughout 2025.
Recent changes to nominated HTs, including GM’s move from Walkinshaw to Triple Eight in 2016 and Ford’s from Tickford to DJR Team Penske in 2018, have not involved teams switching marques.
Ford Australia’s motorsport engineering lead, Brendan McGinniskin, says Triple Eight should spearhead any work targeted towards 2026, including possible wind tunnel running.
“The intent is for them to be the homologation team, so there’s no reason they shouldn’t be involved if it’s for 2026 specifically,” McGinniskin told Speedcafe of Triple Eight.
“If we were doing a mid-season update and that was being rolled in for Bathurst, that’s a different story. But let’s hope we’re not at that point.
“It’ll definitely be a case of ‘let’s hit the ground running’. We don’t want to be handing them the keys on January 1 in 2026 saying ‘here you go, good luck’.
“Clearly there’s going to be a bit of a run-up to it.”
Following a 2023 season blighted by parity arguments, Supercars invested heavily in US wind tunnel testing over the following off-season before returning for AVL dyno work in mid-2024.
Supercars must revisit both measuring sticks at some point this year to homologate the new-for-2026 Toyota Supra, which is currently being developed by Walkinshaw Andretti United.
McGinniskin said the timing of Ford’s 2026 homologation duties will largely be dictated by Supercars.
“The timeline hasn’t been defined yet, but certainly there’s already some thought going into what that might look like,” he said.
“Ultimately you need to look at the timeline from Supercars’ side, if they’re going to the wind tunnel in quarter 3 and going to the AVL dyno at a similar time.
“If there’s an opportunity for us to go and run our car in the tunnel to make relevant comparisons to Toyota, that’s something we’ve got to seriously consider.
“Clearly nothing is locked in yet but clearly that’s our thought going into this.”
Supercars is yet to confirm whether it will welcome Ford and GM back to the tunnel, rather than simply rely on previous data.
While it’s almost certain Triple Eight will want to tweak the current Mustang, McGinniskin believes re-running the incumbents is important regardless.
“When you pull a car out of the tunnel and put it back in, they never, ever read exactly the same,” he explained.
“They do have historical data, but it makes complete sense to take a vehicle that was in there from previous testing. Then you at least know what your walk is from the data you took last time.
“Given that we’re arguing over a box that’s a couple of kilos by a couple of kilos, if you’re not going to fall within that, then I don’t want to end up where we were in 2023.
“The whole idea of the process is to be as robust as it can be.”
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