How did you, Broc and the team feel after round one at Sydney Motorsport Park?
Absolutely happy with the start, to come away with two of three wins and leading the Drivers Championship, it’s a great way to kick off the year, especially with the switch to the new Ford Mustang.

To come away from round one with those results between us shows the team has done a fantastic job in the off‑season.

What did you learn about the car and the rest of the grid in that opening round?
The Mustang has a strong base. Its balance is consistent over a stint and it responds clearly to setup changes. There’s still more performance to unlock, but we’re encouraged by how competitive it felt straight out of the gate.

The field is incredibly tight this year. A lot of teams have found gains, so we expect margins in both qualifying and the races to stay very small. Execution will matter more than ever.

What are the differences between SMP and AGP for setup and driving?
SMP is all about tyre life. It has a high‑flow layout like AGP, but with much lower grip and an older surface that’s tough on tyres… almost like a cheese grater.

AGP, by contrast, has much higher grip and a smoother, more modern surface. At Albert Park we focus on a more aero‑efficient, stable platform to maximise confidence in the fast sections.

The biggest difference is how much the grip evolves. The track hasn’t had rubber on it for a year, so the surface improves rapidly across the weekend. The surface is relatively new and designed for Formula 1, so it’s extremely smooth. It rubbers in quickly and generates grip levels higher than most circuits we race on. You need to anticipate that increase and adjust the setup as the track evolves.

Once the Formula 1 cars run and lay down a lot of rubber, the track can be up to a second quicker for when we drive on it.

What are the key parts of a lap around Albert Park?
AGP is technically a street circuit, but not in the traditional Supercars sense… it’s wider, faster, and more flowing. It’s a blend of long straights, fast‑flowing corners, and fewer heavy‑braking zones. You carry speed for most of the lap.

The plan is to qualify on pole, get a strong launch, and ideally lead into that complex at turn three, four and five to stay clear of any congestion.

They removed the old chicane a few years ago, that’s made the circuit significantly faster and more flowing. That section now rewards commitment and contributes heavily to the increase in average lap speed.

With a clean exit from turn eight, we’re flat very quickly. The car reaches top speed, around 275 km/h, just before braking into turn nine. It’s roughly 18 seconds from exiting turn eight to the braking zone, so it’s a very long, fast run.

Melbourne weather can play a huge part in the race — what if it rains?
Melbourne weather can be very unpredictable, which is always a challenge. For the past two years we haven’t had pit garages at AGP, meaning we can’t perform pit stops easily during a sprint race. Changing tyres mid‑race is highly unlikely, so the pre‑race tyre call becomes even more critical.

If conditions deteriorate too much, race control may red‑flag the race. In that scenario, teams would be able to change tyres under controlled conditions before the restart.

Thankfully the weather is looking ok all weekend from what we’re seeing.

*Quotes not for republishing

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Race 1 Qualifying: 2nd (1:27.0327)
Race 1 Result: 4th

Race 2 Qualifying: 3rd (1:25.9328)
Race 2 Result: 2nd

Race 3 Qualifying: Cancelled (Cyclone Vaianu)
Race 3 Result: Cancelled (Cyclone Vaianu)

“Looking at the start of the season, we had a great start in Sydney, had lots of confidence, and then my struggles with the Grand Prix kind of carried into this weekend and Friday was really weak for us. So to come back in that last race (race two) with a rocket ship car and really probably be the fastest car was really confidence inspiring.
I feel like I’m back at one with the car again finishing this weekend and going in to Ruapuna next weekend. So lots of learnings this weekend, just looking forward to taking that into another week of racing.”

“Ruapuna is a good opportunity for me and Marty to really get to work this week in the lead up and really figure it out, and to be honest, just learn what we have from Taupo and build on that. A new track is exciting. We’ve got four races now, adding one to the Friday after the weather cancelled Sunday here (in Taupo).”

“Plenty going to be going on and to be honest I’m just excited to be going racing. I mean, I feel like I’ve come alive more as the weekend goes on, so to be racing again next week, back to back weekends, I think is a real benefit for us.”

“For the team as a whole, awesome to be back up front of pit lane leading the Teams Championship again. To be honest, pit lane position probably cost me win on Saturday. It cost me a couple seconds in that first pit stop the way the Penrite car blocked our exit which doesn’t happen at the top of pit lane. Our race would have been very different from that, and truly, I think we probably would have won the race without that happening, it costs a few seconds at a key time. So nothing you can do, but to be back up front, it means we’ve had a great weekend as a team and we’ll keep striving to be better which is what we always want to be doing.”

Race 1 Qualifying: 4th (1:27.3182)
Race 1 Result: 2nd

Race 2 Qualifying: 2nd (1:25.8903)
Race 2 Result: 4th

Race 3 Qualifying: Cancelled (Cyclone Vaianu)
Race 3 Result: Cancelled (Cyclone Vaianu)

“What a Saturday we’ve had, what a race that first one was.
Started fourth, got up to second in the first couple of laps, and then was able to get on Brodie’s rear bar and stay there for the majority of it, but couldn’t really do much, he was so fast. Towards the end there we had a really good race with Woody, pretty wild, stood my ground and got the elbows out and did some of the best defending I’ve done to hold on to second spot. Exciting racing and exciting result for us.”

“Second race of the day we started on the front row, great qualifying session and good to keep that kind of one lap speed consistency from Melbourne to the first two races in Taupo. Need to make sure we’re keeping that up to give ourselves the best starting position each race and best chance to be up there at the end fighting for wins.”

“We were fast in race two, but the longer race and the pit stops always mix it up, and always interesting to see who makes the soft tyre work better where we raced on the other compound earlier.”

“Came out just in front of Broc from my pit stop there towards the end but he was just fast for the final stint. A podium would’ve been nice, had some good battles there at the front all throughout the race and really promising again for us to have been top four in both qualifying sessions and both races this weekend.”

“Going in to Ruapuna next weekend feeling good, going to keep building on that consistency and pace we’ve had over the last three races in Taupo (Saturday) and Melbourne (Sunday) and keep pushing for poles and podiums, get that race win.”

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Race 1 Qualifying: 4th (1:28.2173)
Race 1 Result: 1st

Race 2 Qualifying (TTSO): 9th (1:31.9662)
Race 2 Result: 6th

Race 3 Qualifying (TTSO): 1st (1:29.6792)
Race 3 Result: 1st

“This weekend, first round of the season, overall a great weekend. I mean, Friday was obviously a great start. Qualified fourth and then went on to win that race which was fantastic. First race with Ford, or first race back with Ford. That was a huge team effort, so to get that win was unreal.”

“Saturday was a little bit tougher for us. We got a bit of rain in the shootout which made it more difficult for a few runs and one of those was us, put us back a bit to start the race. To be honest we had a fantastic race. Take out a pit stop blunder and we had a fantastic race, but that fifteen second penalty for that blunder is a killer.
To recover to sixth then was an effort and a good effort, and even without the result we wanted it felt like every day we made a step forward with this car. It’s really good and we’re still learning so much about it.”

“Then Sunday was great! Car felt really good once again, made another huge step forward, was able to go from tenth in qualifying (pre-shootout) to first in the shootout and then really just manage the race from start to finish. Had some cool suit problems out there and combined with it being a super hot day here in Sydney… not great, made it a hard one. To be battling with that then battling with Kai (Allen) on track who’s fast and having a great weekend was tough there for a bit. It rained which changed things up, then he had a problem with his car so after that it was just managing everything to the finish.”

“But overall just stoked with the effort from the team. The amount of hard work that’s gone in over you know the past twelve months since we made that Ford announcement but really the last three months to get us in a position to lead the Championship after round one with this car is fantastic.”

Race 1 Qualifying: 8th (1:28.5632)
Race 1 Result: 7th

Race 2 Qualifying: 13th (1:28.3322)
Race 2 Result: 14th

Race 3 Qualifying (TTSO): 5th (1:29.8059)
Race 3 Result: 18th

“Yeah, for us it was just a weekend of what could have been. I felt like the first day we really could have gotten a good result. Unfortunately, we just had a bit of a long pit stop and that ended up meaning that we came out behind Cam (Waters) and ended up finishing in seventh. But felt like that should have been a fourth place or something like that with the car we had and the way we were going.”

“Saturday was just a tough one. We were saving tyres, really looking good. 
Safety car came at the wrong point for us which meant we had to double stack. We went back to seventeenth from that, came back to tenth then got a penalty for spinning the wheels in the pits. All the way back to twenty second and then fought back to about fifteenth. So, tough day yesterday.”

“Then today, today just everything went wrong. The cool suit failed. Thought I was going to die in the car, can’t explain the heat and how hard it made that race. Finished the race but that’s the worst I’ve ever felt after a drive. Obviously, went for a hole that probably I shouldn’t have at the start there. Apologies to Anton (de Pasquale) and his team, I was going for a hole that I shouldn’t have gone for looking back at it but at the same time you need to make those moves when they are on. It’s just been a tough day, tough weekend, really not the way we want to start the year but we know we’ve got a fast car so we’ll push on and have a crack. It’s early and there are good signs.”

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