The Melbourne-based team is facing the difficult task of developing the Toyota Supra for 2026 while racing its current Ford Mustangs.
Speedcafe understands the Toyota project has been cordoned off from the main race team and is housed in a separate building within the Clayton business park where WAU is based.
There are also staff dedicated to the Supra, while others are having to float between the two programs, which Walkinshaw admits is a significant challenge.
“It’s one of those difficult things because the race team doesn’t expand, you don’t suddenly have lots of resources that you didn’t have yesterday,” he explained.
“Most of the people working on the program are people that are working in the race team and, particularly Triple Eight will know, the workload increase is pretty dramatic.
“So it’s hard to ensure that you are able to put your all into developing these new cars while also ensuring that you’re still competitive on track.
“But Triple Eight managed to do a good job with that and we’re confident we can do the same.”
Walkinshaw declared himself pleased with progress on the Toyota Supercars project to date.
“Everything is going to plan at the moment, we should have something to show the world towards the second half of the year. It’s progressing well,” he said.
“Toyota have been very, very helpful, from Toyota Australia to Toyota US, and in Japan as well. Things are moving forward. I’m pretty happy with where we are.
“Supercars have obviously been very, very helpful in the background as well, having tried to ensure the parity has been rectified from the initial start of Gen3 to where we are today.”
WAU’s 2025 Supercars campaign began in healthy fashion at last weekend’s Sydney 500, albeit a far cry from the dominant performance put in at the same circuit last season.
Chaz Mostert walked away third in the standings after finishing the weekend with a Sunday podium, while teammate Ryan Wood battled to 14th for the round.
