New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nHomologation squad Team 18 is best placed on the title table, but it\u2019s languishing in sixth. Not only is it a whopping 466 points off top spot after only four rounds, but it\u2019s 143 points behind Dick Johnson Racing in fifth place.<\/p>\n
There are only two Chevrolet drivers inside the top 10: Anton de Pasquale, currently seventh but 236 points off top spot, and Jack Le Brocq, who\u2019s 10th and only 23 points clear in the last finals berth.<\/p>\n
The dearth of big results \u2014 there\u2019s been only once GM pole and race win and no GM round wins so far this season \u2014 led Supercars to make changes to the Camaro homologation package ahead of the previous weekend in Christchurch to move aerodynamic balance rearwards to better match the performance profiles of the Mustang and Supra.<\/p>\n
Those changes, however, weren\u2019t deemed powerful enough, and from this weekend further tweaks to the front splitter, the front fascia and the rear wing will be made to try to bring the Camaro into closer alignment with its rivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsultation has taken place with the three homologation teams, and the change will be implemented for the Tasmania round,\u201d Supercars motorsport chief Tim Edwards said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurther to this, Supercars will continue to investigate small adjustments to the Camaro that would allow us to significantly reduce the size of the balance parity box.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the scale of Chevrolet\u2019s task to become a Supercars frontrunner is far larger than some parity tweaks.<\/p>\n
Marquez hospitalised after horror crash | 01:15<\/p>\n
CHEVROLET\u2019S DIRE STATISTICS<\/p>\n
After having powered Triple Eight to the last two teams titles and to the 2024 drivers championship \u2014 plus top spot on last season\u2019s pre-finals drivers title table \u2014 Chevrolet has suffered a remarkable decline in form.<\/p>\n
Despite this being Toyota\u2019s first season in the sport, the Chevrolet is, by several metrics, the worst performing marque in the series.<\/p>\n
The gap is particularly evident in qualifying.<\/p>\n
Gap to fastest (combined manufacturers)<\/p>\n
1. Ford: +0.001 seconds<\/p>\n
2. Toyota: +0.289 seconds<\/p>\n
3. Chevrolet: +0.376 seconds<\/p>\n
The above statistic averages the gap between each brand\u2019s fastest car and the fastest overall time in every qualifying session this year, regardless of team.<\/p>\n
Not only is Chevrolet almost 0.4 seconds off the pace, but it\u2019s even behind Toyota.<\/p>\n
Breaking down these averages by team shows Team 18 is almost half a second off pole, though it also demonstrates that it\u2019s perhaps slightly closer to the leading pack given no team is dominating the sport.<\/p>\n
It also shows, however, that it\u2019s behind the lead Toyota team.<\/p>\n
Gap to fastest<\/p>\n
1. Dick Johnson Racing (Ford): +0.176 seconds<\/p>\n
2. Grove (Ford): +0.178 seconds<\/p>\n
3. Triple Eight (Ford): +0.224 seconds<\/p>\n
4. Blanchard Racing Team (Ford): +0.239 seconds<\/p>\n
5. Walkinshaw (Toyota): +0.296 seconds<\/p>\n
6. Team 18 (Chevrolet): +0.470 seconds<\/p>\n
7. Tickford (Ford): +0.478 seconds<\/p>\n
8. Matt Stone Racing (Chevrolet): +0.542 seconds<\/p>\n
9. Brad Jones Racing (Toyota): +0.734 seconds<\/p>\n
10. PremiAir (Chevrolet): +0.869 seconds<\/p>\n
11. Erebus (Chevrolet): +0.900 seconds<\/p>\n
Of more concern to GM, though, is that the above data further shows Team 18 a long way ahead of the other Chevrolet teams. That suggests there\u2019s much more to this underperformance than parity concerns \u2014 more on that later.<\/p>\n
‘Crazy where Martin was 12 months ago!’ | 08:44<\/p>\n
Worse, and perhaps indicative of the need for this weekend\u2019s further parity tweaks, is that the gap is getting wider, not narrower, with the below metric creating a trajectory based on the moving average.<\/p>\n
Rate of improvement (combined manufacturers)<\/p>\n
1. Toyota: improving by 0.030 seconds per race<\/p>\n
2. Ford: steady<\/p>\n
3. Chevrolet: degrading by 0.028 seconds per race<\/p>\n
That much is evident from each brand\u2019s average qualifying result. While the Mustang\u2019s 10 poles from 13 sessions makes it the clear leader on this count, the Supra has been consistently a better performer than the Camaro \u2014 and, remarkably, has the fewest top-three qualifying results.<\/p>\n
Qualifying<\/p>\n
Average best: Ford: 1.2; Toyota: 5.2; Chevrolet: 6.2<\/p>\n
Average top-10 appearances: Ford: 6.8; Chevrolet: 1.8; Toyota: 1.5<\/p>\n
Total top-three appearances: Ford: 31; Toyota, 5; Chevrolet: 3.<\/p>\n
These trends are all clear in race conditions too, with only its numerical advantage over Toyota \u2014 eight cars compared to five \u2014 keeping it marginally ahead in terms of top-10 finishes.<\/p>\n
Races<\/p>\n
Average best finish: Ford: 1.2; Toyota: 5.0; Chevrolet: 6.1<\/p>\n
Average top 10 finishes: Ford: 6.0; Chevrolet: 2.1; Toyota: 1.9<\/p>\n
Average closest car to winner: Ford: 0.3s; Toyota: 10.4s; Chevrolet: 16.1s<\/p>\n
Despite the numerical advantage, Toyota is scoring more heavily inside the top 10 than Chevrolet.<\/p>\n
Points<\/p>\n
Average score from top-10 finishes: Ford: 419.4 pts; Toyota: 122.0 pts; Chevrolet: 114.4 pts<\/p>\n
Average score from best three finishers: Ford: 249.4 pts; Toyota: 152.8 pts; Chevrolet: 147.7 pts<\/p>\n
Martin chases Bezzecchi after French win | 01:43<\/p>\n
IS IT ALL JUST PARITY?<\/p>\n
The above data tells us several things.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a very positive picture painted for Toyota here. While engine reliability and performance questions remain, the Supra is clearly in the ballpark, and Walkinshaw is doing a strong job of representing the brand as the homologation team.<\/p>\n
But the contrasting fortunes of old rivals Ford and General Motors is more interesting.<\/p>\n
GM\u2019s loss of Triple Eight is clearly part of the story. However, given T8 not the outright fastest Mustang and is being closely challenged by Grove on the title table, it\u2019s also obviously not all of it.<\/p>\n
Parity of course must be part of it, as the series itself has found after extensive testing between the opening rounds of the season.<\/p>\n
But then again, the gaps in the above metrics are in some cases so large that this can\u2019t be all of the story either, otherwise far larger changes would be being made.<\/p>\n
So what other problems are there?<\/p>\n
None of this speaks to the capacity of the teams.<\/p>\n
Between them, the current crop of GM teams have won just 25 races in total. Of those wins, 19 belong to Erebus, which is also the only Chevrolet title-winner still with the brand.<\/p>\n
Ford, on the other hand, counts all of the sport\u2019s traditional grandees among its brands. Triple Eight, for example, has more than 280 wins under its belt on its own.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not commentary on the quality of the people behind these teams, but it\u2019s undeniable that Ford is capitalising on having the sport\u2019s best funded, largest and most historically significant brands in its stable.<\/p>\n
Erebus boss Barry Ryan, though, believes that General Motors is currently being let down by a lack of star power, having lost frontrunners Will Brown and Broc Feeney to Ford during the off-season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be totally honest: we haven\u2019t got any A-grade drivers,\u201d he told MotorRacing 360 last month. \u201cSome of the drivers won\u2019t like hearing that, but they\u2019re not A-grade drivers. We haven\u2019t got multiple winners in our GM camp.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ironically three of the other six Camaro drivers were previously Erebus full-timers.<\/p>\n
Antonelli does it AGAIN in Miami | 03:01<\/p>\n
Certainly General Motors is aware that it lacks star power, with nine-time winner Matt Payne rumoured to be the subject of an intense recruitment campaign.<\/p>\n
But Anton de Pasquale\u2019s efforts also deserve acknowledgment.<\/p>\n
The 10-time race winner can mount a compelling argument that he\u2019s getting the most from the Camaro package, being by far the brand\u2019s best performer.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s the only Chevrolet driver to have qualified on pole this year so far and has three top-three starts for a quali average of 7.8. No other GM driver has started higher than sixth, while Jack Le Brocq is the next-best GM qualifier with an average return of 13.3.<\/p>\n
De Pasquale is the only GM driver to win a race, his victory in Melbourne also representing the marque\u2019s only podium for the season. His 10 top-10 finishes from 13 starts is also clearly ahead of the rest. Only Le Brocq\u2019s eight comes close; no other Chevrolet driver has more than three.<\/p>\n
There are several complicating factors to the statistics, though.<\/p>\n
The first is that the manufacturers are unevenly represented, with the grid comprising 11 Ford entries (45.8 per cent), eight Chevrolet entries (33.3 per cent) and five Toyota entries (20.8 per cent). Fewer entries naturally reduces opportunity.<\/p>\n
But the drivers in the mix are also unbalanced. For example, three of the Chevrolet drivers (37.5 per cent) are rookies, whereas Ford brands are blooding only two young guns (18.2 per cent). There are no rookies at Toyota.<\/p>\n
Parity is part of the problem, but there\u2019s also clearly much more to it than that.<\/p>\n
With five rounds and 15 races stretching between now and the Enduro Cup, there\u2019s time still for Chevrolet to improve, find form and make a genuine finals charge.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s a lot of work to do before it recovers its status as a Supercars force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chevrolet teams are hoping the latest raft of parity tweaks will have them competing on an even playing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,689,84236,329219,329217,101490,81870,143243,184310,329225,254747,329229,21779,107484,18254,2057,329216,5334,2592,59975,329212,2105,329221,107487,329230,327827,313608,107504,328821,324019,101818,647,806,805,329213,803,804,86310,246401,673,1736,322251,3583,329226,677,329227,85997,329224,329228,117429,329222,13777,106488,78374,43359,329232,13147,101414,329218,85,25820,254586,329214,43367,16690,329231,329220,329223,3586,660,2062,14594,329215],"class_list":["post-682776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-average-qualifying-result","tag-average-score","tag-balance-parity-box","tag-barry-ryan","tag-bathurst","tag-borough-of-christchurch","tag-car-specification","tag-chevrolet-teams","tag-crew-look","tag-dire-numbers","tag-drivers-championship","tag-editors-note","tag-engine-reliability","tag-europe","tag-fewest-top-three-qualifying","tag-finals-berth","tag-france","tag-general-motors-company","tag-genuine-finals-charge","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-homologation-package","tag-homologation-squad","tag-homologation-teams","tag-horror-crashalex","tag-italian-wonderkid","tag-jack-le-brocq","tag-jorge-martin-fuming","tag-martin-chases","tag-matt-payne","tag-melbourne","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport-chief","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-mount-panorama","tag-multiple-winners","tag-new-south-wales","tag-new-zealand","tag-nine-time-winner","tag-northern-europe","tag-numerical-advantage","tag-oceania","tag-parity-tweaks","tag-performance-profiles","tag-performance-questions","tag-polarizing-filter","tag-positive-picture","tag-pre-finals-drivers","tag-qualifying-session","tag-race-conditions","tag-race-victory","tag-race-winner","tag-races-stretching","tag-raul-fernandez","tag-rear-wing","tag-recruitment-campaign","tag-sports","tag-stats-show","tag-teams-titles","tag-tim-edwards","tag-title-table","tag-top-spot","tag-top-three-appearances","tag-top-three-qualifying-results","tag-top-three-starts","tag-united-kingdom","tag-victoria","tag-western-europe","tag-will-brown","tag-worst-performing-marque"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682776","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=682776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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