Latest / Full Credit to the Noise / The Bend 500 daily: Friday
Transcript
- Speedcafe Team: Hello welcome to the Friday edition of the daily podcast from the AirTouch 500 at the Bend. My name is Andrew Van Loren and I'm joined by Speed Cafe's managing editor, Stefan Bartholomew. Stefan, that was a well, firstly, a lovely day at the racetrack, weather wise. Probably the best weather I've ever seen at the Bent. It was pretty good. We didn't actually venture out for the brake betting session this morning, which would have been pretty chilly, I reckon, at that time. But it was nice and sunny through the rest of the day. It was. ⁓ and it was an interesting day both on and off the track. We'll sort of start with the on-track stuff because it does lead into the off-track stuff a little bit. Camaro's on top in all three sessions. Jaden OJ top two of them, the first and the last. Obviously they those two sessions involved all of the drivers. Bailey Hall in the Super Cheap Auto Wildcard was fastest in the dedicated co-driver session. Now the reason that's an interesting thing. is because of this whole parody storm that I don't know if it's brewing or it's brewed already or whatever's going on in the background, but a lot of tension in the paddock already over the fact these Camaros were gr granted this this front aero change heading into the weekend. We had the cars fastest. Not that that was a necessarily like a direct result in what happened after that, but moments after the session we have Brenton Grove, Stephen Grove, and Jamie Winkarp in s in meetings with supercars in the A trailer of the supercar's truck, threats of legal action still hanging in the air. There's a bit going on. That is a bit to tackle in ⁓ in one breath. I'm not sure where we go ⁓ from there, but ⁓ certainly what a ⁓ amazing story to have the Camaros topping the order. Yeah. It's added further fuel to this political fire. Even ⁓ Anton in that ⁓ in that practice three Anton Di Pasquale. He was at the top of the times at one point, but complaining about the handling and saying he thought he was down a cylinder. Yeah. Like it felt like they were trying to antagonize the Ford guys as much as possible. Yeah. And on the flip side, they think that the Ford guys have ⁓ what was the term Anton used in the press conference? That like not everyone's shown exactly what they've got just yet. Yeah, I think ⁓ just to cover off that with Anton, he had a little bit of exhaust damage. So that explained that it didn't apparently affect the performance, but it a slip joint had just pulled out a little bit. So ⁓ that was the story behind that. But ⁓ yeah, you were in the presser. I wasn't. What did ⁓ the Chevy boys have to say about ⁓ the impact of these aero changes? It was the very predictable line of there's no way you could feel these differences. They're too small, you know. We wanted more. ⁓ we didn't get more, we got what we got, and there's no way to tell, which is always interesting because Drivers are very good at knowing what they don't have, but they seem to not necessarily be able to understand what they do have. So if you know what the problem is, I feel like you should know if the problem's been solved or not. But the I guess the the legitimate reason that both Jaden O'Jada and Anton Di Pasquale gave as to why they didn't feel it's the right time to comment on whether the changes had helped them or not was based on the fact that They feel that it's over race stints that they lose time, that the this rear instability problem becomes worse and worse and worse. And just going out there and banging out of practice time isn't any way to tell where they sit in the competitive order compared to the other cars. And obviously, I guess there is something to be said about the fact that unless you back-to-back changes on the same track, you know, very close to each other, it is difficult to say, okay, it's it's better or worse. But I think they make it sound a little more difficult it is to work out if this is a step in the right direction or not. For sure. It's interesting the ⁓ the talk about one lap versus a race run. And yes, like the whole field is super compressed in qualifying. And then we do see it naturally spread in the races. But particularly Anton and Jaden, they're two guys that have actually traditionally this year come through in the races. They've both got better average race finishes than their average qualifying. I think Jaden's passed more cars than anyone this season. So that was ⁓ not exactly the narrative I expected out of that. Yeah, but it also is the narrative you expect because we know how this works. And what they were saying, and this is not criticism of either of those drivers or anyone else, you wouldn't expect them to sit there and say, ⁓ this thing's a hot rod now. Like we're on now. And particularly in Jaden's case, like a wealth of experience in GT racing, which is all about politics. And he did very eloquently explain. why he couldn't comment on this and you'd have to be the best driver in the world to be able to feel these tiny changes and all that sort of stuff. And it's straight out of the BOP playbook. Like that's and again, not criticizing him for it, but that's that's his wheelhouse. He knows how to play that game because that's the world he's lived in for the last few years. Well, he's really good in high downforce G D three cars. So I guess he's the one that's adapted to this new Kamaro the best. Yeah, obviously such a small, small change, but ⁓ it's interesting talking to people about what it might do and the fact that it is right there under the front bar, like hugely pitch sensitive ⁓ part of the car. It can really affect that stuff. And they have been talking about the fact that it's that's nervous on entry. and yeah, this is just some more downforce. Yeah. So ⁓ let's stick with the sort of form the rough form guide that we may or may not have got today. Are you just drawing a line through those Mustangs now? We're not gonna see we're not gonna see, I don't know, Brody Kastecki or Cam Waters or Matt Payne or Brock Feeney or Will Brown right at the front this weekend. Or, you know, perhaps winning comfortably this race. So Brody Kastecki was the fastest of the Fords in the end there and practice three in fourth. Ryan Woods Toyota was ⁓ between the the top Ford and the Chevy guys at the front. ⁓ we saw Cam Waters down in P twenty. So it wasn't just that like some Chevies were on top, it was how far down some of the star four guys were. So so Cam thought they'd just gone the wrong way on setup. Brock Feeney was P twenty three and he'd actually made a mistake at turn nine on his best laps on his good tires, because those guys were running new tires at the end. It wasn't ⁓ just running old stuff. Yeah, correct. I think when you look at ⁓ practice two, the co driver session. And we did have the wildcard Bailey Hall on top, but there were six or seven really good Mustangs filling the next places. Yeah. Those ⁓ heavy hitter cars with really good co-drivers, which might be a little bit of insight into into how the race is going to go on Sunday. Yeah, I think I think it would be bold to say that the this updated Camaro is so fast that it can't be beaten by any of these very good drivers and very good teams that are still running Mustangs. But yeah, we did have the Scenario at after practice three where there was the meeting between effectively Grove Racing and Triple Eight and Supercars. ⁓ we knew that was coming already from yesterday. We knew that was gonna happen. We don't quite know what the outcome of that was. We did tackle Steve and Brenton and Jamie as they came out of the A trailer. An old fashioned stakeout. Yep. We did we and we got there and we spoke to them and they gave us absolutely nothing and they said, give us a little time to go and ⁓ and reconvene and and kind of come up with what we want to say next and we'll get back to you. We'll have a statement within the hour was the suggestion. It was many hours ago. We haven't seen that yet, and that seems like something that is going to come through tomorrow now, not tonight. ⁓ so I guess we don't really know where that's going to go. What we know, and we spoke about this yesterday, like this is not about trying to change anything for this weekend. The cars are going to run as they are at the at at across this race meeting. But it's about what happens next and whether these Ford teams go down the path of legally challenging the fact this change has been made in their belief outside of the team's racing charter. Yeah. So we believe the reason why there's been a delay on those guys communicating anything in the form of a statement. Is that they are discussing this with other Ford teams. Yeah. And seeing if this is gonna be a fully united all in approach. So even just from that, you would suggest this is them preparing to take this further. Yeah. I don't feel like there was any way that that meeting was gonna end with everyone in the room holding hands. Yeah, some sort of yeah, definitive outcome of any any kind. Yeah. 'Cause there's certainly ⁓ They want more answers on the technical side as to why this was the solution because Supercars has conveyed the solution in some detail to them, but there's some scenes missing from the middle of the movie on how they got from the wind tunnel spec to where we are now. But the fundamental issue there is that those teams believe supercars has breached the the team's racing charter in the way that this has been done. Well, we will bring you more on that in the Saturday daily pod when we get there, because by then we will definitely have this statement from either all of the four teams or some of the four teams or however it does end up playing out. Let's talk about brakes, because we haven't done enough of that today, Stefan. We definitely didn't. I think every person we spoke to, you just asked about brakes because it was such a a hot topic. As you said, we weren't necessarily on the ground for the brake bedding session this morning, but we've been out a piece together How the whole thing played out, not that session, but the entire scenario that we're facing heading into this weekend. It was confusing. Like it's ⁓ early in the day, it was tough to get a real read on where things sit at. But effectively they they trialed some of the previous batch brake pads in that session, seemed to experience very similar problems that they did at Ipswich, then switched to bedding in this new batch. That's been rushed out to Australia. and that there was cautious optimism that that's better. But that's one set of pads per car, and there's not necessarily universal confidence that's enough to get through the whole weekend. So the plan is for another batch to arrive before we get to, I don't know, Sunday at least. But that's then been stuck in customs at Heathrow. So where do things sit? Right now. How does it play out from here? Well, yeah, that's the that's the layer of the land on where things sit really. But ⁓ so because that ⁓ the second new batch has been delayed, ⁓ that supercars are still hopeful they'll be here as soon as Saturday and be ready to be ⁓ run on the cars in the warm up on the Sunday. So thankfully the the format is that there is that warm up session which they could bed in new pads. Yeah. And that would give ⁓ Give the teams obviously two sets of this ⁓ from these new batches, but at the moment because that's not actually arrived and they can't guarantee it will, Supercars has ⁓ actually gone through because they did an audit of all the pads that all the teams had brought to the track yesterday and they've made sure that every team has ⁓ they do have two new sets. So one of the the new batch that's arrived, which is called the 507s. And then another set from the various batches, the older batches, but still new pads that ⁓ that people have brought. Yeah. It's ⁓ what it did feel like by the end of the day compared to the start of the day was there was kind of an acceptance that things will be okay. Like not an ideal scenario, but things will be okay. Whereas when we got to the track this morning and drivers had just jumped out having run the four nine nine nine. Yeah, they were there was a bit of Panic's not the right word, but a bit of like I don't know how this is going to play out because a lot more break dust in the air than people want to. Yeah, exactly. So at least we've got some sort of it yeah, it felt a little bit more relaxed that that whatever happens, this will they'll get through this this event and that'll be fine. Yeah, and ⁓ supercars are obviously doing the best they can to manage this situation because it's not actually their fault. It's the control supplier for rotor that have ⁓ not produce the product. I mean it is the risk when you have a control pad and there's only that pad. Like we had for years before Gen three there was pad options, ⁓ which was largely about individual driver feel and preference. But you get custom pads made for like for them. We did occasionally have, yeah, teams switching brands during a race weekend if they had an issue with with one set or the other. So ⁓ yeah, this is Again, control part motor racing. If there's something wrong with ⁓ the control product you've got to scramble on your hands. Yep. That that's very true. what did you make of ⁓ the the West Circuit, what you were seeing today? Thoughts on that? Well, turn six is probably more interesting maybe than ⁓ you might have thought. I mean, from speaking to people at the ⁓ the rookie test day that ⁓ happened here a couple of weeks ago, track limits was was gonna be a ⁓ a talking point. Yeah. So they've put that ⁓ timing loop, the sensor in on the exit. Yeah. ⁓ and there was a lot of breaches of that in practice. Yeah. ⁓ so that's something obviously that'll ⁓ pop up in the race, people feeling it out in practice. But ⁓ we'll see there's no ⁓ loop on the entry. So drivers are just going way over usually it's bizarre. It is like there's a boundary line that you have to adhere to on the exit but not the entry. Yeah. but yeah, we'll we'll see. I mean, I also thought today there was a lot of ⁓ there was a lot of people talking about turn five, the previous corner, that ⁓ this year they've backfilled the inside of the curb. Yeah. And but now it everyone's just dragging the dirt from the inside onto the track and obviously then the next guy comes through and and runs off the exit. Yeah. So that was pretty sketchy at some points today as well. Yeah, it was interesting again in the press conference. ⁓ the drivers were asked about the track limits thing, and Ryan Wood said, which I think is a pretty sensible answer fundamentally, like we get paid to drive race cars, we should be able to drive them between the lines that we're meant to drive them and then sort of stopped and went, but apparently not on the way into the corner. It's like that that's okay to just do whatever you want there. So that's pretty chippy from a bloke who ran into the back of his teammate and practiced one. That's true. Did anyone ask me about that? That's true. We'll bring that up off air, right? That's ⁓ that's ⁓ no, nobody asked him that. Probably probably should have. But anything else you want to discuss out of ⁓ Friday at the bend? ⁓ no, that that probably covers it. I mean and the other thing there with that short circuit is we did see a transam today go off at the exit of turn five and slide across the infield grass and almost rejoin in the middle of six. Mm-hmm. ⁓ which is something that ⁓ I'd not heard anyone talk about being of concern, but it's an interesting part of the track design when you do use the short circuit that ⁓ that scenario can happen. Yeah, well I guess we'll ⁓ see how it all plays out when when there's things on the line which starts tomorrow. So yeah, let's leave it there. We will be back tomorrow evening with the Saturday edition of the Daily Podcast. Between now and then make sure you do stay tuned to speedcafe.com There's F one on tonight. We'll have all of that covered and then we'll be covering everything that happens at the bend tomorrow, including whatever Ford has to say or sorry, the Ford teams have to say about this whole Camaro parody thing. So yeah, keep an eye out there and we'll be back in this podcast for you tomorrow night.