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Walkinshaw Andretti United is confident that pairing two drivers accustomed to number one status together will not cause unhealthy friction next season.
WAU became the big players of the driver market when they convinced Nick Percat to join its ranks alongside Chaz Mostert for the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship.
The Clayton organisation has had Mostert as its clear spearhead since the beginning of last year, with youngster Bryce Fullwood piloting the #2 entry.
But with an opportunity to strike as the likes of Triple Eight Race Engineering brace for a period of change, WAU hopes Percat can help them fight for silverware including the teams’ championship.
The prospect of having two ambitious A-grade drivers potentially getting involved in a squabble for intra-team supremacy has already been mooted, but WAU director Ryan Walkinshaw is sure any such competition will only be geared positively.
“I mean, you never really know how a relationship is going to go between two drivers but at the end of the day, they’re both drivers, they’re both working for the team and they’re both team players,” Walkinshaw told Speedcafe.com.
“Nick has shown that he can be a leader of a team over at BJR [Brad Jones Racing].
“He has softened over the last few years and stepped up to being a genuine leader in that team, and we’ve spoken to people about how he works with the other guys in the team, the other drivers and so on, and we’ve been happy with the responses that we have got.
“To be honest, Nick and Chaz, they’re not kids, they’re both adults, they’re both competitive drivers.
“Yes, of course we want them to go compete with each other.
“We don’t want them to be best mates and not have a fight on the race track because we need them pushing each other, that’s the best way we’re going to get our performance improved in our team, by having those two competitive drivers who want to beat each other but respectfully on the race track.
“We’re confident that we will be able to have that.”
Walkinshaw said Mostert was upbeat about Percat’s impending arrival, given his desire for a team-mate who can push him, and clarified that there will be no designated lead driver going forward.
“We see them both as leading drivers in our team and there won’t be any favouritism,” said Walkinshaw.
“By the nature of having two competitive drivers and us making the investment in getting two drivers of that kind of calibre, we want them both to succeed and both to have equal opportunity to succeed.”
WAU does have history of managing high-profile driver line-ups, for example having run Supercars champions Garth Tander and James Courtney alongside one another from 2011-16.
Percat, who scored a podium in Race 21 on Sunday at Sydney Motorsport Park, has four events remaining in his BJR tenure.
His WAU reunion – having completed a fine rookie season with the team in 2014 – will kick off on the streets of Newcastle on March 4-6, 2022.
