Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters continues to take a wait-and-see approach on the merits of the Ford Mustang parity changes.
Supercars conducted an official parity review following another Chevrolet Camaro rout at the Hidden Valley event, which lead to a suite of changes to rear-end aerodynamics on the Mustang ahead of this weekend’s NTI Townsville 500.
The aim was to correct what sources claim was a “substantial” loss of downforce under pitch (braking) which was detected by CFD work conducted in the United Kingdom, in collaboration with Ford homologation team Dick Johnson Racing and Supercars’ Motorsport department.
Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert gave a negative appraisal of the changes after he used a three-stop strategy to finish third in Race 16 of the Repco Supercars Championship, the first since the new package was implemented, and then slammed the category’s VCAT process.
Waters, who used the far more common two-stopper to get home fifth, second of the Mustang pilots, had a somewhat different take.
“I think the car is definitely different,” he told Speedcafe.
“But, for us, we’re kind of still struggling in the same areas.
“We kind of can brake okay, [and] get to the corner; we’ve just got no drive off.
“Obviously, the aero has done something because we’ve changed our set-up a bit but it’s kind of a little bit early to tell if it’s given us what we need.
“We might have to tune it and make it work, but it wasn’t just [a case of] bolt on speed and go get a trophy, like probably a few people were saying.”
Mostert claimed he had a serious struggle with rear tyre life, and that his car had better balance when changing the rubber on the back only.
Waters was also left wanting more in that area too, but noticed a change in how the Mustang behaved.
“Yeah, I was struggling with rear tyre life,” he confirmed.
“So, same thing as past rounds; it’s probably shifted a little bit, I think, where it’s hurting the tyre, but still blowing rear tyres off it.”
Notably, Waters and Dick Johnson Racing’s Will Davison were among those who were held for a relatively long fuel fill during their first pit stops, in order to cover a set-up change to the rear of their respective Mustangs.
It cost track position, and Davison was also hurt by a drama with the coupling which meant the car was not in fact being refuelled for as long as initially thought.
However, for Waters, the loss of track position was worth the payoff, even if the late Safety Car somewhat played into the hands of the likes of Mostert.
“We wanted to do a change, so we put a bit more fuel in and tried to get a bit more clean track,” explained the Monster Energy Mustang pilot.
“That second stint was pretty good – wasn’t as quick as obviously Broc and Will – but wasn’t bad.
“We were probably trucking on for a podium if it wasn’t for that Safety Car.
“So, fifth isn’t bad when you probably could have achieved a third.”
As in Race 16, Mostert and Waters are the top two Ford drivers in the championship, occupying fifth and sixth, respectively.
Qualifying for Race 17 starts tomorrow at 10:20 local time/AEST.
Additional reporting: Mark Fogarty
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