'A lot of talk': De Pasquale wary of rushing into premature debate

Camaro spearhead Anton De Pasquale has refused to be drawn into a parity debate, despite dropping back in the order as Fords dominated Melbourne.

De Pasquale and Chevrolet homologation squad Team 18 stunned in Sydney, winning Race 2 before missing out on a Sunday podium due to a clash with Will Brown.

Come Melbourne, and Mustangs went four from four in qualifying and races — Brodie Kostecki and Dick Johnson Racing doing the lion's share of the winning — while Camaros failed to claim a single podium finish.

De Pasquale qualified seventh, seventh, 10th and 17th for the four Melbourne sprints, ensuring he was unable to fire a shot at the front-runners in the short races.

Chevrolet’s standout was Matt Stone Racing’s Jack Le Brocq, who finished fifth for the round, and heads to New Zealand just 24 points behind De Pasquale.

The 2026 season was preceded by wind tunnel testing, which led to aerodynamic tweaks to secure parity across the Camaro, Mustang and new Toyota Supra models.

Erebus Motorsport’s Cooper Murray has already suggested the pre-season tweaks have hampered his team’s progress. De Pasquale, though, was noncommittal on those claims, instead suggesting that the Triple Eight factor had a bigger say.

Of GM's 54 wins in the Gen3 era, Triple Eight claimed 36 of them. Triple Eight — which was responsible for 16 of GM’s 17 wins in 2025, and 27 of 33 since the start of 2024 — already has three wins in Fords in 2026.

"The cars are different for sure. They’re not exactly the same as what they were 12 months ago, so there are some new learnings,” De Pasquale told Supercars.com.

“Obviously GM and Triple Eight were quite strong at AGP in the past. Triple Eight was the main one, but everyone else was really strong as well. This year, not so much.

“It’s just different. The Ford's taken a step forward as well. AGP was always going to highlight any big differences between cars, whether it's your own or others or whatever, because it has the longest, fastest corners.

“Taupō won't be the exact same, but whether it's the same as last year, we don’t know until we get there.”

What’s clear, is the speed in Sydney didn’t translate to Melbourne, with De Pasquale insisting the Grand Prix did so much as highlight certain weaknesses in his package.

Crucially, De Pasquale has a chance to bounce back immediately in Taupō, where he claimed a front row start 12 months ago in his DEWALT Camaro, and only missed out on strong results due to pit stop issues out of his control.

"Obviously we weren't as competitive as we were Sydney,” De Pasquale said.

"AGP's a very different track. It's a lot faster, grips's lot higher, you spend a lot longer in the corners. It probably highlighted some of the weaknesses we have.

“We just kept trying things and never went the right way. We weren't too bad on the Thursday and then we kind of went down a certain path and then we sort of tried to come back.

“We weren't as fast as the lead guys, but were still in the top 10 in most sessions, so we collected some points. Sometimes, that’s the best you’re going to get out of that weekend at that point."

When asked if it was frustrating to slip back after Sydney, De Pasquale replied: "I don't think frustrating is the word. Obviously life would be perfect if you just rolled out fastest every time, but it's not going to happen.

“It's really hard out there, it's so competitive. You have to dig deep every weekend and you're going to have good ones and bad ones. That's part of the rollercoaster. For us, it's understanding what we can do to work on our weaknesses.

“We’re now going to New Zealand, which is going to be a very different track and form guide again.”

Track action at Taupō commences on Friday April 10. Tickets for the ITM Taupō Super 440 are on sale now.