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Chaz Mostert and Nick Percat were encouraged by the changes which are being made to the Ford Supercars engine after Walkinshaw Andretti United’s test day at Winton.
WAU and Tickford Racing took to the regional Victorian circuit on Tuesday and, for the former, it was their first proper in-season test of the Gen3 era after an attempt to run the day in May was abandoned due to rain.
Both being Ford outfits, their Mustangs were running with the new, 80mm throttle body which homologation team Dick Johnson Racing tested during the week prior at Queensland Raceway.
However, that was not the only change to the Ford package, with multiple throttle translation tables used across the six Mustangs during the day.
WAU and Tickford were also still coming to terms with the new aerodynamics, which debuted in competition in the most recent event of the season, the NTI Townsville 500.
“The aero was like it was at Townsville, so nothing different there; still trying to work it out as a team,” Mostert told Speedcafe at the conclusion of testing.
“I did a little throttle body stuff today; some stuff felt a little bit better, a little bit nicer on the cracked throttle, so there were some good improvements there.
“There’s still some work, I think, to be done in that area but I know other guys were trying a lot more than I did.
“I don’t know exactly what I did; it was a pretty full-on day and then once the rain came [interrupting the test at about 14:00], it was pretty go systems at the end there [once the track dried].”
He added, “When there’s any improvement, it’s always encouraging, for sure.
“I’d say the throttle response felt a little bit better, for sure, a little bit easier to manage, but they’re so different, the cars out there.”
Team-mate Percat had a similar take, telling Speedcafe on the subject of driveability, “It’s getting better.
“There’s different variations now that they’re going to look at after getting feedback on-track versus dyno and stuff.
“They’ve got real data now so Craig Hasted [Supercars’ engine expert] and stuff will go back and look at it, but there’s definitely potential for it to be the right direction.”
Mostert had been left extremely frustrated at Townsville by the tendency for the Mustangs to still chew up their rear tyres, with his podium in Race 16 and Anton De Pasquale’s victory in Race 17 meaning the top Ford drivers in each of those encounters achieved such a result on a three-stop strategy.
However, with a more aero-dependent track coming up, namely Sydney Motorsport Park, and whichever revised engine package is settled upon going forward, the next event of the season will be enlightening.
“Every small improvement will help, for sure, so probably SMP will be a really interesting round,” remarked Mostert.
“It’s another high-degradation joint and more of an aero track, so I think we’ll see more in the sectors of where cars are deficient or where cars are good.”
Tyre degradation will be thrust into the spotlight again at ‘Eastern Creek’ given Saturday night’s 200km race now only has one compulsory pit stop, creating a strategic trade-off between tyre wear and pit transit time.
Support category action at the Sydney SuperNight starts next Friday, July 28.
