COMMODORE AERO TWEAK SECRET BLOWN

Commodore’s secret aero tweak – Photo: InSyde Media

Supercars’ efforts to keep new aerodynamic concessions for the Commodore a secret have backfired, with details of the changes exposed at the Darwin Triple Crown.

COMMENT By MARK FOGARTY

The aero changes to help the ZB were confirmed at the first trial of regular F1-style media conferences with team principals.

Triple Eight’s Roland Dane, Tickford Racing’s Tim Edwards and Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Ryan Walkinshaw were put on the spot as they faced questions about the latest parity move.

Following last month’s cutback of the Mustang’s aerodynamic aids, Supercars approved a small extension of the Commodore’s front undertray and a trimming of the maximum angle of the rear wing.

However, Supercars chose not to publicise the change ahead of this weekend’s round at Hidden Valley Raceway, where the aero tweaks come into effect.

They were uncovered on Friday morning, just a couple of hours before Dane, Edwards and Walkinshaw fronted the media.

Ironically, Supercars’ new initiative became the unintended forum to reveal the details of the ZB’s aero adjustment in the absence of any official comment.

As the boss of the factory backed Holden Racing Team, Dane was the obvious target of enquiries about the Commodore’s concessions.

“There’s a small change to what’s called the extension on the back of the splitter to make it so that it’s actually uniform with the other two cars (Ford Mustang and Nissan Altima) in terms of its relationship with the ground,” he explained. “So it’s a very small tweak. It’s quite difficult to see whether it’s measurable, but it’s basically bringing all the cars into line in terms of that angle.

“They have different size splitter extensions, which hasn’t changed. It’s just the subtlety of an angle on there which has been made uniform across the three cars.”

Dane added: “The only other change with that is the rear wing has had a reduction of one degree from 19.5 to 18.5 maximum (angle of attack).”

According to Edwards, the Ford teams are comfortable with the adjustment to the ZB, which is understood to address its rear-biased downforce by transferring some grip to the front end.

Edwards confirmed that the decision was made by the Supercars Commission last week on the recommendation of the category’s technical department, which has been studying aero data on all cars since the Mustang parity row erupted at the start of the season.

“Well, obviously, I sit on the Commission and (DJR Team Penske chief) Ryan Story’s also there, so we’re involved in the decision-making process and with the evidence that was put in front of us, we agreed to the change,” he said.

Edwards stressed that the move was a “data-driven decision”.

Walkinshaw reserved judgement on the changes, the effects of which all three agreed were unlikely to be immediately clear at Hidden Valley.

“It remains to be seen,” he said. “We’ll see how it goes on track. These guys (Supercars) have done the work to make sure it’s something that the Ford teams and the Holden teams feel is a fair change in order to get the best parity possible between the three cars.

“We’re not involved in the change. We just work with what we’re given.”

The trio of team principals couched the ZB aero tweaks as a further measure to achieve parity between all three cars rather than a boost for the Commodore to get it closer to the Mustang, which has continued to dominate since its aero cuts.

Despite the revelations, Supercars still hasn’t formally confirmed or explained the changes to the Commodore’s aerodynamics, nor has it run the story on its web site.

The team principals’ media conference was also a wasted opportunity to have Supercars head of motorsport Adrian Burgess outline the adjustments and why they were made.

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