TRIPLE Eight Race Engineering has committed to assisting in the investigation into the fires which marred the debut of Gen3 Supercars at Albert Park.
While parity has re-emerged as a concern following Round 2 of the 2023 season, the most important element of the post-event debrief will be finding a fix to the infernos which engulfed the Ford Mustangs of Nick Percat and James Courtney in back-to-back days.
Both cars caught fire at the front-left corner during the opening lap.
The situation sparked emergency meetings on Saturday night between various technical directors and then team owners, leading to a range of measures to prevent a Sunday repeat.
Most obvious was a switch to a single-file rolling start after spending Lap 1 behind the Safety Car.
Supercars powerbroker Mark Skaife said prior to Sunday’s race that an “air crash investigation”-like process would unfold in the coming weeks.
Given Triple Eight’s prominence in the overall Gen3 designing process, the Chevrolet powerhouse team will be a key player.
“Supercars will lead the investigation but absolutely, us being part of the design of the car, we’ll be heavily involved,” Triple Eight managing director Jamie Whincup told V8 Sleuth.
“We’ll just do what we always do, find the source and the issue and come up with a fix for it.
“I thought Supercars did a great job (on Saturday night), had a mitigation plan we executed and ran a safe race here (on Sunday), so well done to them and everyone with all the planning.
“We’ll make sure we come up with a fix before the next round.”
Whincup doubled down on his confidence that the saga will be rectified by the time the championship heads to Wanneroo Raceway for the end-of-month Perth SuperSprint.
“We’ll do a proper investigation and come up with what the issue is and I’m sure we will be back to standing starts for Perth,” he said.
“We have got plenty of time now.”
PODCAST: Supercars searching for answers on Albert Park fires
