We asked if the 2023 champion’s absence would diminish your enjoyment of Supercars and, for three in four of you, that answer is a ‘yes’.

More than half – 53.6 percent of 9626 respondents at time of writing – voted that their enjoyment would diminish ‘a lot’ if Kostecki is not on the grid, while another 22.8 percent agreed their enjoyment would be hit ‘a little’.

Just 23.5 percent voted ‘No’, their enjoyment would not be diminished.

That is just as well for those nearly one in four respondents given there is no confidence in the paddock that Kostecki will drive an Erebus Motorsport Camaro again, and thus little prospect he will be racing in Supercars at all in 2024.

Reader ‘Adam #43’, though, wrote, “Losing any front-runner, let alone the reigning champion, is a massive blow to any championship.”

‘shedoginc’ has been left saddened by the potential downfall of one of the good news stories of 2023.

“Erebus winning last year was a breath of fresh air for the sport, even with the parity dramas,” they wrote.

“It drove interest in the smaller teams for you could barrack for them knowing they had a realistic chance of winning.”

Meanwhile, ‘mrnobody’ and ‘Richard Townsend’ exchanged views as to just how much Supercars should involve itself in the matter in a bid to break the apparent impasse.

The former stated that, “[Supercars] don’t have anything to do with the employment contracts teams have, nor should they.”

The latter replied, “Perhaps, but at some point someone has to step in to mediate and work out a solution because this situation is causing the Supercars brand irreparable damage.

“You simply cannot have a championship winning driver on the sidelines before the start of the season and several sponsors withdrawing their support without seriously damaging your reputation and credibility as a professional sporting series.”

READ MORE: Roland’s View: The Kostecki Affair

READ MORE: Supercars CEO: We are not taking sides in Kostecki-Erebus impasse

‘DeanoMagic’ opined that, with Kostecki on the sideline and Shane van Gisbergen off to NASCAR, the quality of the field has dropped.

“If you remove the top two finishers from the field, you lower its quality,” they declared.

“Part of me is excited by the changes and new talent, but the quality of the field has had a chunk taken out of it.”

‘Dominic’, on the other hand, is looking on the bright side.

“If Supercars gets parity right, we won’t really miss SVG or Brodie,” he wrote.

“There will be almost the double the number of cars that can compete and hopefully a more sustainable unexpected front-running team or two.”

Voting is still open until Monday afternoon, when there will be a new Pirtek Poll for Speedcafe readers to have their say.