Accusations of Ford gamesmanship at Supercars check

All the Supercars subject ran its Gen3 vehicles collectively for the primary time right now in a single, essential all-in check at Sydney Motorsport Park.

The primary alternative to gauge comparative efficiency got here amid an ongoing parity saga with the brand new vehicles, as Ford continues to voice issues over aero and engine efficiency in comparison with the Camaro.

Supercars is about to go again to the runway for extra homologation testing subsequent week, whereas tweaks to engine mapping for each the Ford and Chevrolet groups continued right now, with sources indicating the Chevrolet shift lower was slowed.

By the tip of the day there was a transparent development of dominance from the Chevrolet groups, with just one Mustang driver, Todd Hazelwood, sneaking into the highest 10.

That has raised eyebrows from main Chevrolet groups, Erebus Motorsport boss Barry Ryan adamant the Ford groups had been purposely not attempting for a quick time.

“I do know they weren’t,” he instructed Motorsport.com. “They might have been attempting onerous, however they weren’t tyres that provide you with lap time.

“I used to be on the market all day watching it as a result of we had been all cautious of it. And once they’re simply on onerous tyres, and you’ll inform an previous smooth tyre as a result of the white is gone off the aspect, it is ridiculous.

“There will likely be reviews tonight that there is just one Ford within the high 10 – and I do not give a shit. I belief the VCAT system and that is confirmed itself over time. We have not had a parity situation since Ford did the identical factor final time.”

Triple Eight staff supervisor Mark Dutton added that some gamesmanship from Ford can be regular given the circumstances.

“You’d must assume there is a little bit of that happening,” he mentioned.

“There are some very sensible individuals in these groups that like that gamesmanship.

“However I did not see what [tyres] they had been on once they had been on their quickest laps. Due to the climate we weren’t mandated to run [new] tyres on the finish.”

A number of Ford groups denied any allegations of sandbagging, together with Grove Racing’s staff principal David Cauchi.

“We had been on the market on smooth tyres on the finish of the day,” he mentioned.

“We had been operating by our programme. We weren’t attempting to do a time as such, however we had been attempting to go quick.

“There was no concerted effort to not go quick, no less than not from our staff.”

Regardless of his claims of gamesmanship, Ryan stays assured that the VCAT re-run subsequent week will yield the fitting consequence.

“It’ll make everybody comfy,” he mentioned.

“The most important factor I noticed on the information display was that the vehicles had been all inside a kilometre of an hour of one another. And it was a mix of vehicles. It is fairly bloody spectacular. Supercars ought to be proud they have to that time.

“If the aero is a bit completely different, and [Ford] chooses to have that steadiness, properly that is positive.

“We’ll see. When the chequered flag drops in qualifying in Newcastle, we’ll know.”