Mostert, WAU rebuild confidence with fast Ford
Supercars
05 Mar
Chaz Mostert "building a lot of confidence" with Mustang
Mostert 21 points from championship lead heading to Melbourne
WAU star finished fourth in 2023 despite going winless
Chaz Mostert says Walkinshaw Andretti United’s “completely different” package in the first round of 2024 has given the team a morale boost following an inconsistent 2023.
The form of Mostert and WAU was an eye-opener for the field at the Thrifty Bathurst 500, with the #25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang on the money at Mount Panorama.
Mostert did leave the 2023 season-opener as the championship leader following a double Triple Eight disqualification, but struggled for consistency thereafter, going 13 races and four rounds without a trophy.
Come Bathurst last month, and Mostert gave Red Bull Ampol Racing a fright, setting up what could be a thrilling Chevrolet versus Ford championship battle.
In a sign of what's to come, Mostert was straight on the pace in his first weekend with new engineer, Sam Scaffidi, with Carl Faux also making waves as Technical Director.
"We've also got to reflect on ourselves where we were last year, and still be bloody proud of what we've been able to do in this break, in such a short period of time,” Mostert said.
“No doubt this will give us a real big morale boost as a whole team. I think we know we can achieve what we want to do.
"We want to keep these Bulls honest. In saying that, you’ve got to be realistic. There's so many different tracks and tyres, and all that kind of stuff.
"But, if you'd told me at the start of the weekend, would you have two podiums, I would have bought it. So, pretty stoked.”
Mostert and WAU turned it around in the second half of 2023, scoring podiums in Townsville, Sydney and The Bend, before racing to fourth in the Repco Bathurst 1000.
In a season punctuated by a number of parity changes, Mostert emerged as Ford’s leading light, finishing fourth in the championship despite going winless.
For WAU co-owner Ryan Walkinshaw, the work done by Supercars in the off-season — headlined by the Windshear wind tunnel testing — has also helped the team close the gap.
“I think it'd be quite hard for anyone in this room or fan not to say that Supercars have made a big step forward from last year,” Walkinshaw said.
"Going to the wind tunnel testing at Windshear was a fantastic initiative… I don't think there's anyone who's going to disagree with me, actually, that the parity on the on the aero is pretty much spot-on now.
“I don't want to start a parity debate, because I don't think that's the right time to do it and it's only one track, but [Bathurst] does show that in quite strong force.
“So, we know there's additional testing coming with Supercars... but, I think it's important to note that we are a hell of a lot closer than we were last year. Because, last year, what we saw over this weekend with Chaz fighting [Will Brown and Broc Feeney], it didn't happen pretty much for the entire year.”
Mostert admits there is still a bit to learn about the package, but now feels in a position where he and the team can make the difference.
“The things we were struggling with, if I go back to October here, I've got a completely different car, different philosophy under it,” Mostert said.
"I'm building a lot of confidence. I just feel like it's been a real buzz this weekend, driving the car, working on my driving and trying to extract the most speed out of it.
“[Last year] sometimes I'd come in and look at the leaderboard and scratch my head a little bit with our car. But, this weekend. I could look at sectors and go, right, you need to tune yourself up there, or you need to do this.”
Mostert is 21 points off the championship lead heading to the Melbourne SuperSprint on March 21-24.
