From the slowest track on the calendar to the fastest, the Supercars series transitions from the twisty streets of Newcastle to the flat-out roads of Melbourne for the second round of the championship.
The Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit was opened up markedly last year despite what on paper appear to be relatively modest changes. Several corners were reprofiled and a pair of turns were expunged, combining to significantly speed up the track.
Thanks in particularly to what is now a mammoth long back straight, where last year’s cars cracked 275 kilometres per hour, the track clocks an average speed for the Supercars of 180 kilometres per hour, a smidgen faster than Mount Panorama. At 5.278 kilometres, it’s also the second-longest circuit on the calendar and approaching twice as long as the season average.
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And not only is the Australian Grand Prix a completely different circuit configuration, but the weekend format is unique too.
For 51 weekends a year the Supercars series is the motorsport top dog in Australia, but this week it takes up the unfamiliar position of support category to Formula 1 as part of a bumper undercard.
The arrival of Formula 2 and Formula 3 on these shores along with the omnipresent Porsche Carrera Cup means the Supercars has had to squeeze into what few gaps remain in Melbourne’s diminishing autumnal sunlight.
This is the only round that will feature four races spanning some 350 kilometres, down slightly from the 400 kilometres of last year.
Teams and drivers will get just two 30-minutes practice sessions in total to adapt to the demands of Albert Park, and each race will get just 15 minutes of time-certain qualifying.
A single red flag or even a length safety car period at any point will completely change the complexion of a session and perhaps even a weekend.
“When you go to any other Supercars round with the main show we get that little bit longer practice, but at the grand prix the track distance is so long and qualifying is so short that you have literally one opportunity on one tyre to do a time,” championship leader Chaz Mostert told the Supercars website. “So it’s super-cutthroat, and it all comes down to your qualifying position.
“One mistake on that lap you can be — which we’ve seen in years past — 23rd or 24th on the grid even though you might have the car speed to be on the top five.
“I’m up for the challenge, the team is as well; we’ll just have to see what the form guide’s like after the grand prix. But it’s going to be exciting to watch no matter what.”
Waters talks tricky Melbourne SuperSpint | 04:22
GEN3’S STERNEST TEST
The challenge is amped up considerably by the fact these cars are still so new.
The controversy of Shane van Gisbergen being slapped down by the Supercars hierarchy for criticising the all-new Gen3 car may have largely settled, but the acclimatisation process is ongoing. Teams are still learning their ways around the new cars and drivers are still finding ways to get the most out of them.
There are still questions over parity, with the sport set to conduct a centre-of-gravity parity test next week.
But the flowing Albert Park street track with a layout that will put the aerodynamic kits through their paces will show up any major discrepancies between the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro. If this season is destined to have a parity blow-up, we’re likely to see the seeds sown here.
That also speaks to the fact that while the 500 kilometres of race running in Newcastle will have made for valuable data to sift through, it bears little resemblance to Melbourne’s streets, and there’s likely to be limited crossover between them in terms of set-up and, interestingly, form.
“I don’t know if your Newcastle car will actually work too crazy [well] at the grand prix,” Mostert said.
“Saturday racing (in Newcastle) was quite good for us, and then we thought we’d try to chase the car on Sunday and make it a little bit better, and I think we actually made it probably a little bit worse.
“So it definitely doesn’t go parallel with the old cars and the mindset, so that’s pretty refreshing and [means] we don’t really have any perceived ideas about what the car actually needs.
“I think you draw a lot of parallels with how you went at [Sydney Motorsport Park] in the test day and the things you learnt from there — they’re very similar tracks except not the same grip levels.
“I thought we might’ve had a bit more of a competitive car at the SMP test day than what we had, say. at baseline with the car in Newcastle, so I’m excited to see the grand prix and just see if we can draw a parallel between what SMP testing was like and that, and then that will build us more confidence of what car we can go forward.”
2023 F1 Australian Grand Prix Preview | 04:53
The historical and contemporary form guides suggest Mostert and Walkinshaw Andretti United will be in the hunt.
This time last year he came achingly close to securing the Larry Perkins Trophy ahead of Van Gisbergen. The two drivers shared two wins apiece, but SVG’s third place in the first race and a fastest lap bonus made the difference despite a tyre blowout on Sunday, handing him the overall victory by just 17 points.
He’s also leading the championship standings for the second time in his career.
“Its way too early to think about [the title lead],” he said. “If I go back to 12 months ago I was lucky to lead the championship for the first ever time, and that lasted all the one race.
“The main goal is to just focus on the car and try to make it fast.
“We had a good weekend in Newcastle. We got some good results. But Gizzy is still on top of his game — those cars seem to be super-fast — so we’ll keep chipping away.”
WHO’S UNDER PRESSURE?
There’s no team under more pressure after just one round than Dick Johnson Racing.
The Ford homologation team was nowhere in Newcastle, so much so it was easy to forget Will Davison and Anton de Pasquale were even on track most of the time. Neither driver played any meaningful role on either day, and they’re 16th and 17th respectively in the title standings.
The team put its struggles down to failing to nail set-up for qualifying, which counts for so much around a street track. Starting in the pack left both drivers on the back foot, making it too difficult to make progress.
The bad news is that the same pressures exist in Melbourne, and it doesn’t take long for the weekend to rapidly unravel.
The first two qualifying sessions take place one after the other today ahead of the first race later this afternoon. Get things wrong in the precious hour of practice and you can effectively write off half the weekend.
Rolling out of the garage at Albert Park in a reasonably competitive state is essential to a good result.
The team was moderately successful this time last year, collecting three podiums and a fourth place between both drivers, albeit the other four results were all outside the top 15. But it’s enough to inspire at least a little bit of optimism for a stronger weekend.
DJR aside, there’ll also be a certain amount of pressure on Triple Eight to bounce bank strongly from a controversial weekend in Newcastle.
Both T8 and Van Gisbergen reasserted themselves as the benchmark in pure performance terms, but disqualification from the first race for a clear technical breach and then SVG’s post-race press conference antics — however justified they may have been — ended up colouring the entire weekend.
Van Gisbergen and his team were set to meet with Mark Skaife to clear the air after the five-time champion unloaded on the reigning titleholder live on air in Newcastle. Regardless of whether the famously single-minded SVG feels any pressure at all from the experience, there’s no doubting the spotlight will be fixed almost exclusively on him this weekend to see how he reacts.
THE SCHEDULE — MELBOURNE SUPERSPRINT (354 KILOMETRES)
Practice
Two 30-minute sessions on Thursday, at 11:25am and 1:15pm.
Race 1
Qualifying on Thursday at 2:45pm lasting 15 minutes.
Race on Thursday at 5:40pm lasting 22 laps (116 kilometres, up to 45 minutes).
Race 2
Qualifying on Thursday at 3:10pm lasting 15 minutes.
Race on Friday at 2:50pm, lasting 17 laps (90 kilometres, up to 35 minutes).
Race 3
Qualifying on Saturday at 9:05am lasting 15 minutes.
Race on Saturday at 5:25pm for 14 laps (74 kilometres, up to 30 minutes).
Race 4
Qualifying on Saturday at 9:30am lasting 15 minutes.
Race on Sunday at 5:25pm for 14 laps (74 kilometres, up to 30 minutes).
