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Ryan Walkinshaw has come to the defence of Supercars’ parity efforts after a cautious response at best to the new Mustang aerodynamic package at the NTI Townsville 500.
The Ford Mustangs rolled out at the Reid Park Street Circuit with a suite of changes to rear-end bodywork, some more subtle than others, in a bid to correct a loss of downforce under pitch.
The Townsville timesheets suggested an improvement in qualifying trim, but that was hardly the problem area for the Blue Oval teams.
Once racing began, though, it became apparent that tyre life remains an issue, consistent with claims of rear-end instability, with the top-finishing Mustang in each 88-lap encounter getting there through a three-stop strategy.
In Race 16, that was Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert in the #25 Mobil 1 Optus Racing entry, which took the chequered flag in third.
Walkinshaw himself told Speedcafe and the Parked Up Plus podcast, “I think it’s obvious that there’s been a lot of frustration from fans, drivers and the teams in pit lane this season with what’s happened with the parity.
“But, the intention of Supercars was always going to be that parity is at the heart and soul of our category and, make no mistake, Supercars are putting an enormous amount of effort and work to try and rectify the issues as we see them today.
“Ultimately, all we want as team owners and drivers and fans, is for us to have equal and fair cars, that we can all shut up and actually just go racing again.
“Because, I think everyone’s getting quite bored of having discussions about parity – there’s much more exciting things we could be discussing in this category, as opposed to parity – so I think we all hope that it’s sorted out as quickly as possible so that we can just get back to racing again.”
Walkinshaw’s position is in stark contrast to that which Mostert expressed after his Race 16 podium.
The two-time Bathurst 1000 winner said on television after hopping out of Car #25 that it felt like it did not even have a rear wing, then opined in the press conference that Supercars should conduct parity testing “properly”, implying that a wind tunnel would be a more appropriate exercise than mere airfield running.
Mostert was, of course, speaking after a physically taxing race which would have left him literally hot under the collar, and Walkinshaw put the comments down to a build-up in frustration.
“I mean, Chaz is able to say what he wants to do, and I think it’s important to remember that all the Ford drivers are incredibly frustrated,” he remarked.
“I think, if anything, they’ve all been very mature for the last six months in dealing with it the way that they have for the good of the sport and for the good of their teams.
“When you end up doing what Chaz did, we had an absolutely phenomenal drive, the team had the best strategy in pit lane, and, in any other season, we would have won that race by 10 seconds.
“But you saw we had tyres that were 10 laps better than the guys in front of us and we’re on par on pace, which demonstrates the issue we still have with the tyre deg on the Ford side, which is something that needs to be continually reviewed by Supercars and improved upon.
“At the moment, it appears that qualifying is slightly better and slightly, slightly more balanced, but in the race, we still have serious issues so [it was] understandable that Chaz was frustrated.”
Additional reporting: Mark Fogarty
