DAY one of the Gen3 era proved an overwhelming success, but today brings a new question mark.
Friday’s three-part practice featured 135 minutes of uninterrupted track running and a final leaderboard whereby the top 24 cars were separated by less than a second.
So it seems these cars not only look and sound good, but run well and are fiercely competitive.
Pitstops are the next variable about to become a little less of an unknown.
Wheel nuts have been a talking point all pre-season, with progress made in recent weeks to largely rectify the problem – Triple Eight and Erebus Motorsport each delivering a solution.
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Walkinshaw Andretti United still had trouble changing wheels yesterday during practice, on at least two occasions with its #25 Mustang’s front-left, but Chaz Mostert is unconcerned.
“We have practice rims and we have race rims and it’s just the way our car is for this weekend,” he said after Practice 3.
“For the coming rounds as we get some more time, we’ll get all of our sets of rims up to standard but at the moment I’m not stressed about the race.”
The two-time Bathurst 1000 winner did though reference a bigger challenge for pitstops being the ability to navigate other cars given the wider turning circle that has come with Gen3.
“Back in the middle of the pack for us it was pretty tight to get around other cars,” said Mostert.
“So I hope as a team we can talk to our neighbours and say ‘hey, can you be pretty kind to let us through and make a bit more room?’
“They don’t turn as well, the turning circle on the cars are not as good as the Gen2 cars, also they’re a little bit wider.
“You have probably seen guys getting pushed back in the lane not quite making the turn – I think I made it twice out of eight times today so definitely a bit more challenging.”
That especially could make for chaos in a double-stack situation.
Despite that, and the slower refuelling system this year, Practice 3 pacesetter Brodie Kostecki believes double-stacking will be a no-brainer for teams.
“I think you’ll be double-stacking if that scenario comes out,” said the Erebus #99 driver.
“Tyres are dead after 10 laps so I think if there’s a Safety Car that comes out that will be a double stack, most teams will take that.”
Supercars head of motorsport Adrian Burgess noted there is still work to be done to tidy up some finer details in Gen3.
“We have had a massively busy period up to this point and some things we’re still trying to catch up just from our sheer workload, not only Supercars but the teams as well,” he told V8 Sleuth.
“So are our pitstops going to be optimal? They’re probably not, but to be honest we have got long stops (this weekend).
“You have got 100 litres to transfer, so there isn’t actually any stress in the wheel changing and trying to get that done in four seconds flat, the teams don’t need to.
“We know we have still got a few problems in that area with the wheel nuts and things like that, but this is what happens with new cars.
“People still couldn’t build power steering systems in the old car nine years later.”
