{"id":581854,"date":"2026-04-03T01:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T01:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/581854\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T01:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T01:28:14","slug":"jamie-whincup-all-but-rules-out-f1-liam-lawson-supercars-wildcard-in-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/581854\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamie Whincup all but rules out F1 Liam Lawson Supercars wildcard in New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TRIPLE Eight boss <a href=\"https:\/\/www.v8sleuth.com.au\/stats-driver-1-Jamie-Whincup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jamie Whincup<\/a> has shot down the likelihood of Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson latching onto a last-minute Supercars wildcard in his native New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>The prospect was floated on MotorRacing 360 on Wednesday night, ahead of the upcoming doubleheader comprising Taup\u014d (April 10-12) and Christchurch (April 17-19).<\/p>\n<p>Lawson is not unfamiliar with Gen3 Supercars machinery, having sampled a Tickford Racing-built Mustang during the 2024 Australian Grand Prix event and an ex-Triple Eight Camaro last December at Highlands.<\/p>\n<p>The problem is finding a seat for the 24-year-old, who is aligned to both Red Bull and Ford which therefore makes Triple Eight his logical landing spot \u2013 not to mention team shareholder Tony Quinn being a personal backer of his.<\/p>\n<p>Either the Kiwi-based ex-<a href=\"https:\/\/www.v8sleuth.com.au\/stats-driver-2748-Ryan-Wood\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ryan Wood<\/a> Gen3 Mustang belonging to Walkinshaw TWG Racing co-owner Scott O\u2019Donnell could be borrowed and upgraded, or Triple Eight\u2019s spare car could be flown over, or an existing driver could step aside for Lawson.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/superstore.v8sleuth.com.au\/products\/v8-sleuth-magazine-issue-3?utm_source=SRBuyButton&amp;utm_medium=website\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/v8sleuth-mag-issue3_1024x1024.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>All are extreme longshots.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreat idea but no way a driver is going to step aside because there\u2019s championship points,\u201d Whincup told V8 Sleuth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I reckon if anyone was going to do it, it was probably us, and he hasn\u2019t reached out or our corporate partners haven\u2019t reached out for us to support a car.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I think it\u2019s highly unlikely.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s probably almost impossible logistically as well right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>F1 is in the midst of an event-less April following the war-induced cancellations of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia grands prix.<\/p>\n<p>The Undercut \u2013 Breaking down the big 2026 issues!<\/p>\n<p>The Undercut is back for 2026, with Aaron Noonan once again joined by Jack Perkins and James Moffat, breaking down a massive start to the new motorsport season!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TRIPLE Eight boss Jamie Whincup has shot down the likelihood of Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson latching onto&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-581854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}