Supercars: Ford teams unhappy the Chevys are dominating (Update)

Ford Australia boss Andrew Birkic demanded urgent action by Supercars to fix the disparity between Fords and Chevy’s or Ford might quit.

Birkic walked back from his unequivocal commitment to Ford continuing its factory support through at least next year, made at the Sandown 500 last month.

“We’re not speculating on anything,” Birkic told Speedcafe. “We will continue to focus on our teams, making sure we do the right thing with them. But also, we certainly want some areas addressed.”

“We always look at our investments. We look where we spend our dollars and we’re always looking to race to win, so nothing to speculate about the future.

“We will continue to get better, and that’s what I mentioned to you a few weeks ago and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”

“The parity issue still remains,” he declared. “Obviously, we’ll review the data. And that’s really important for us, to get the data and we’ll continue to do that.

“The issue does remain, though, from our perspective, and we’ll continue to meet with Supercars. We’re having ongoing dialogue with them.

“And we certainly have a lot of issues that we would like addressed – and we’ll continue to have those conversations.

“At the end of the day, we race to win.”

Since the new Generation 3 Supercars were rolled out, the Chevy Teams have been beating the Ford teams week-in and week-out.

The Ford teams proposed some aero changes to close the gap – they were rejected.

Ford teams have slammed the Supercars parity situation as “unacceptable” after changes they were pushing for at the Bathurst 1000 were finally rejected.

The statement reads, in full:

“Following ongoing analysis, Supercars, in conjunction with its independent CFD partner, D2H Group, have acknowledged that there continues to be a disparity between the Gen3 Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro. Therefore, technical parity has still not been achieved.

“Unfortunately, the proposed aerodynamic changes to the Ford Mustang, which have been acknowledged by all parties involved to reduce the delta between the two models, will not be implemented for the Bathurst 1000 this weekend.

“The independent data shows that the Mustang will be at a continued disadvantage for the biggest race of the year, which we believe is unacceptable – and not what our sport is built upon.

“While disappointed in the situation, every ford team will be doing their utmost this weekend, it’s what the fans deserve, it’s what our partners deserve, it’s what the Great Race deserves.

“We will continue working together to correct the imbalance going forward, but now, our attention turns on track, respecting the challenge that The Mountain provides.”