In a dramatic week, the 43-year-old veteran has become the latest high-profile casualty of the silly season.
Team 18’s move to sign Dick Johnson Racing outcast Anton De Pasquale proved a bombshell when it came to light on Tuesday.
The Melbourne-based team’s staff, and Winterbottom, had been informed the day prior, and are said to be equally surprised.
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Winterbottom was the first to react publicly with a heartfelt social media post on Tuesday afternoon, describing the previous 24 hours as “a whirlwind”.
“I don’t really know what the future holds, I’m still digesting the news, but I know I can hold my head high as a professional sportsman,” he wrote.
“I have given 110% and loved working with the team crew and all the sponsors, you are great people.
“I truly value the support from my family, friends, sponsors and supporters, at a time when I need it most.”
Fans and industry members have come out in force on social media to support the father of three, who remains one of the championship’s most popular drivers.
He isn’t the first ageing star to suddenly be replaced by a younger driver, and won’t be the last. That is the nature of sport.
But in a world of carefully stage-managed exits, many have expressed the view that this was no way to treat a champion.
It appears the public rollout was fast-tracked due to a looming DJR announcement and a leak of the De Pasquale/Team 18 signing, rather than through any ill will.
Regardless, Scott Pye – Winterbottom’s teammate at Team 18 from 2020 to 2023 and a driver who many predicted he’d butt heads with – is among the many outspoken.
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“After everything @markjwinterbottom has done for @team18racing and @charlie.schwerkolt they couldn’t even announce him leaving and say thank you before celebrating their new driver,” he wrote.
“If they think a new driver will fix their problems, they’re kidding themselves.
“Second slide shows both drivers are maximising what they are given. Good luck @markjwinterbottom for wherever you go next you’re a champ!”
The slide Pye refers to shows the head-to-head stats between Winterbottom and new-for-2024 teammate David Reynolds.
It was a graphic that Supercars somewhat awkwardly published in the moments after the news dropped, and suddenly removed.
The numbers are simple: Reynolds ahead 11-7 in qualifying, Winterbottom ahead 10-8 in races.
Winterbottom had himself made the comparison to Reynolds just over a week earlier at Symmons Plains, where he’d shaped up for his 600th consecutive Supercars race start.
“I’m still driving well,” said Winterbottom, whose friendship with Reynolds helped lure the 2017 Bathurst winner to the team.
“Dave and I are so close and you forget very quickly that the guy I’m benchmarking against dominated the back end of last year (with Grove Racing).”
Winterbottom also spoke about the prospect of a new contract with Team 18. He was optimistic, but cautious, declaring a “see what happens” approach.
In the last 12 months he’s had to bat away ever more frequent questions about the next generation taking over and what it means for him.
“People don’t realise, to get contracts renewed, you have to have a value better than the next person trying to take your job,” he said.
“It’s pretty tough and to have been here for such a long time is really cool, to have bosses and teams put faith in you that you’re the best person for the job.”
They were the words of a man who has seen it all before and knows too well the sliding doors of the Supercars silly season.
The Western Sydney product burst onto the Supercars scene in 2003, winning the Development Series at his first attempt with Stone Brothers Racing.
SBR was the best team in the land and Winterbottom was tied to the Queensland-based outfit on a multi-year deal. Perhaps he succeeded too soon.
With Marcos Ambrose and recent signing Russell Ingall filling SBR’s main game seats there was no room at the inn, and Winterbottom was loaned out to Larkham Motor Sport.
Two tough seasons with the under-funded squad nearly ended Winterbottom’s career.
He did enough, however, to impress Ford, which played a role in placing numerous drivers in seats for 2006.
The oft-told story is that Winterbottom was destined for Triple Eight, before Jamie Whincup was put in that seat and ‘Frosty’ joined FPR.
The move defined the next 10 years of the championship. Whincup and Triple Eight dominated while Winterbottom and FPR were the nearly-men.
Winterbottom finally got his rewards with a Bathurst win in 2013 and a championship with the rapid new FG X Falcon in 2015.
In the years that followed, the once factory Ford team began to struggle and, in late 2018, Winterbottom made the bold move to sign with Team 18.
It broke the hearts of Ford fans. A product of the Ford KartStars program, Formula Ford and over 15 years in Falcons, Winterbottom was as true blue as they came.
Little did he know that the new-for-2019 Mustang would sweep all before it.
Team 18 was attractive because it had what Winterbottom lacked most of his career, Triple Eight equipment, as well as a one-car focus.
He likewise gave Schwerkolt’s previously struggling squad the sort of credibility and commercial clout that only a well-spoken champion can.
Pye joined as teammate in 2020 and, while largely evenly matched, it was the new signing who snatched the team’s first trophies.
Winterbottom toiled away with little to show for it, finishing 13th, 10th, 10th and ninth in the standings from 2019-2022.
The introduction of Gen3 in 2023 marked an opportunity for Team 18 and yielded a breakthrough victory at Hidden Valley, snapping Winterbottom’s seven-year drought.
However, a series of disasters – including being trapped in the pits on the final lap at Bathurst – led to major staff turnover and left him 15th in the standings.
For 2024, Schwerkolt again invested heavily, bringing in Adrian Burgess as team manager and bolstering the squad’s engineering line-up.
The year so far has netted Winterbottom two podiums, his most in a single season since 2017, but a host of struggles too.
And so to the part that may well sting Winterbottom the most.
“We’re going to have our rough days,” he’d said at Symmons Plains.
“But on our good days, we’re good enough to win, so there’s light at the end of the tunnel… it’s definitely headed in the right direction.
“I hate starting things and not finishing. Two podiums this year, it’s been better than last year, even though the (championship) position is not. But we’re making progress.
“I love racing for Charlie, he’s a great guy who deserves success. I’d hate to leave and the team kicks its goals and kicks on, because they are going to get there.”
Whether Winterbottom can jag a full-time drive elsewhere remains to be seen. It’s only August and the field is far from set.
If not, he’ll be the number one draft pick as endurance co-driver.
Regardless of what the future holds, Winterbottom should indeed hold his head high for surviving 20 years in a cut-throat game.
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