The Meta glasses sign outside the Triple Eight garage. Image: InSyde Media
The factory Ford team has signage on the paddock-side entry to its garage at The Bend explicitly banning the Meta eyewear, which is capable of capturing photos and video.
According to Triple Eight boss Jamie Whincup the move is a direct response to what he says are legitimate spying claims doing the rounds of the paddock.
Whincup says anecdotal evidence suggests content captured on Meta by guests on pit tours has then been distributed to rival teams.
Pit tours are a daily occurrence during Supercars events for all teams with VIP guests and sponsors given guided access to the garage and the cars.
“We heard some pretty bad stories of people walking through garages filming,” Whincup told Speedcafe.
“People who know (what to look for). I think team people are sending punters into garages just to basically spy.
“We don’t want that. We want to bring people in the garage for the experience, but it’s a bit sad that people are taking advantage of that and trying to spy.
“There’s no doubt that’s happened a couple of times in the last six months, so we’re just trying to protect ourselves from that. We’ve heard of incidents and it absolutely makes sense.”
Whincup clarified that Triple Eight is yet to be a victim of this alleged spying, with the glasses ban a proactive move.
“We’re reacting before it happens to us; we don’t believe it’s happened to us, but we’re reacting before it does,” he said.
“As Warren Buffett says it’s better to learn from other people’s mistakes.
“We’ve heard of some situations and we want to be preventative.”
This is the second time this year spying has been a topic in the Supercars paddock.
Back in February, Brodie Kostecki was filmed looking underneath a Walkinshaw Toyota Supra and a Triple Eight Ford Mustang at the Supercars season launch in Sydney.
The footage of Kostecki’s sneak peek was captured by Triple Eight driver Will Brown and posted to social media in the name of light-hearted fun, with both Kostecki and Brown claiming it was a joke.
Triple Eight, however, didn’t see the funny side, team manager Mark Dutton going as far as to call for Kostecki to be sidelined for the opening round at Sydney Motorsport Park.
“In motorsport, stealing IP is worse than drug cheating,” Dutton told Speedcafe at the time.
“My opinion is it’s a suspension from driving. It’s worse than drug cheating, and what do drug cheats get? Suspension.”
Motorsport Australia stewards were consulted on Kostecki’s alleged spying but no action was taken.