CHAZ Mostert has praised off-season efforts to achieve aerodynamic parity between the Gen3 cars, but feels there’s more work to be done on equalising engine performance.
Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford driver Mostert finished third in the 2024 season-opener at the Thrifty Bathurst 500 behind Triple Eight Camaro drivers Broc Feeney and Will Brown.
Grove Racing’s Richie Stanaway made it two Mustangs in the top four with fourth-place, while Camaros swept the following five positions amid dramas for other key Ford runners.
In addition to aerodynamic changes that resulted from wind tunnel testing in the United States, the Mustangs are running an upgraded engine package this weekend.
Dick Johnson Racing boss Ryan Story, whose team took over the Ford engine program late last year, flagged earlier this week that more work may be needed to get on par with the Chevrolets.
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“I think what Supercars has done in the break from an aero point of view is pretty amazing,” said Mostert when asked about parity after the season-opener.
“The cars looked quite balanced across the top when I was quite close to the other guys at the start. But the speed trap numbers don’t lie. My personal opinion is we need to do a bit more in that area.”
Asked if he was running a high-downforce setup, considering his speed across the top, Mostert added: “I wouldn’t think anything different than anyone else that I can see out there.
“At the end of the day I kind of ran in that middle part of the race by myself, so I was punching my own air for a lot of it.
“But that Safety Car restart and the start of the race was pretty tell-tale.
“(Towards the end) I was trying my hardest to catch the guys at the front, but even if I got to them, I didn’t think I’d have much for them, especially after the start of the race.
“But my car was really good. WAU gave me probably the best car that I’ve had in Gen3 era, it was a lot of fun to drive, but Bathurst is one of those tracks that really highlights a few things.”
Those comments follow the first outing for Mostert with race engineer Sam Scaffidi, who was recruited from Tickford Racing to replace the departing Adam De Borre.
Mostert had spent all but one of his 11 previous Supercars Championship seasons with De Borre by his side in what was the category’s most famous driver-engineer partnership.
“(It required) a bit different driving style to what I would normally be used to in this car,” Mostert continued of his car in Race 1 of the season. “Sam as well has been coaching me a lot.
“It’s funny, probably the difference between Adam and Scaff is Adam had 10 years of probably believing in me too much to a point, that probably the last couple of years never had the hard word with me to say ‘you need to change something’.
“Ever since Scaff has come onboard at the test day, he’s come in with a fresh set of eyes and a fresh face and no doubt, we’re normally good at blowing the rear tyres off, that was one of the first chats we had at the test day.
“He’s keeping me honest to a point. I am trying to drive a bit different.
“Even when you get to my age and you feel like the old buck up here with a couple of young chargers, you could always learn something as a race car driver.
“I think you get to a point at the end of your career, the day you don’t learn anything is the day you should hang up your helmet.”
