Will Davison at the 2025 Gold Coast 500. Image: Supplied
Supercars was forced to return to the controversial bundles after footage of cars with four wheels off the ground last year raised alarm bells at the FIA.
Allowing drivers to effectively use the kerbs as ski jumps and leap through the air was spectacular and a promotional win for Supercars, with the footage going global online.
However, the failure to police the homologated track limits was deemed unacceptable, resulting in a mixture of tyre bundles and electronic sensors being utilised this year.
“[Last year] there was no skill involved whatsoever through the back chicane,” said Reynolds, a two-time winner on the Gold Coast.
“There was nothing about car placement. It was just all about how stupid are you and how much risk you want to take.
“This year you’ve actually got to think about where you place your car, how you enter it, how you go through it, and that adds a nice little skill element to it.
“It makes it a little bit harder to follow a car through there because you can’t really see the tyre bundles, and makes it sort of hard for passing, maybe.
“But I think they’re trying to just slow us down through there, which it probably will.”
Tyre bundles have not been used at the circuit’s signature chicane since the 2022 event.
James Golding lost control through the chicane in the early stages of that’s year’s Sunday race, collecting a tyre bundle at Turn 10 that led to a multi-car pile-up.
A bundle was placed at Turn 10 on Wednesday as part of pre-event preparations but, to the relief of drivers, was taken out ahead of the start of track action.
The Turn 10 tyre bundle in place on Wednesday. Image: Speedcafe
That kerb will be policed with a sensor, although the bundle may be added back in if deemed necessary by race control.
Triple Eight’s Will Brown praised that decision but remains alarmed by the sheer size of the tyre bundles that are in place.
“I went for a run and had a look at it and typed into AI how much I think it might weigh, and I reckon it’s upwards of 150 kilos,” he said.
“Now one of our cars, if it hits it from 200km/h to a tyre bundle that’s 150 kilos, it’s not going to be very good, to be honest.
“I don’t think the tyre bundles need to be that big to stop us cutting the corner. I think they’re a little bit of a hazard down the back chicane there.
“But it’s good that they’ve taken the Turn 10 one out because that is generally the most common one we cut.”
Reasons for removing tyre bundles at the chicane ahead of the 2023 event included concerns the front bars of the Gen3 cars are less robust than that of their predecessors.
Brodie Kostecki found that out the hard way last year when a touch with a tyre bundle at Turn 1 broke the front splitter on his Dick Johnson Racing Ford in Saturday qualifying.
Despite makeshift repair efforts, the splitter eventually dropped down under the car’s front wheels, resulting in a major crash that effectively ended Kostecki’s Finals Series hopes.
Kostecki said the placement of the beach chicane bundles should mean that is not an issue, but the fundamental concern over bundles remains.
“These cars aren’t quite as strong with the front splitters as the previous generation, but I don’t think that’s too much of a worry since they’re two metres back,” he said.
“But more so, if someone makes a little error, they’re probably going to crash into tyres that probably weigh 150, 200 kilos.
“Hopefully we don’t see a repeat of what happened to James Golding a few years ago.”
Opening practice for the Gold Coast 500 will get underway at 11:45am AEST, with wet conditions likely to somewhat self-police kerb usage.