MOTORSPORT: Ford Mustangs top F1 qualifying
But don’t talk about parity "bullshit", say Blue Oval driversFour brand-new Ford Mustangs in the top four in the opening Supercars championship qualifying session at Albert Park, and five in the top six in the second session.
Well, that should stop the parity dogs barking. Not!
In front of the opening day crowd of the Rolex Australian F1 Grand Prix weekend, reigning Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin took both pole positions in his Shell V-Power DJR Team Penske Mustang, including a qualifying lap record run in the opening session.
McLaughlin now has three of the four poles contested so far in 2019. The other one went to his Shell Penske teammate Fabian Coulthard for the opening race of the championship in Adelaide two weeks ago.
McLaughlin’s domination in both the Adelaide races got the Holden heavies complaining. Which prompted a response from Ford’s factory team.
With McLaughlin leading Coulthard and Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters and Will Davison in the opening Melbourne qualifying session (then having Chaz Mostert’s Tickford Mustang join him on the front row for race two), the complaints will only be stirred up more.
Unsurprisingly, the Ford drivers were keen to play down the whole parity discussion. In the case of Waters, quite forcefully.
“Everyone goes on about this parity bullshit but to be completely honest in 2017 and 2018 these guys [DJR Team Penske] were still up the front every weekend winning [in a Falcon],” the Monster Mustang driver said.
“You come into this year and it’s no different. The only difference is Tickford has taken a step forward and the percentage [difference] is a lot closer to those guys. That’s one thing to look at.
“I think when they bang on about parity and all this stuff, it takes away from all the boys who have worked the Christmas break hard back at the workshop,” Waters stated.
Tickford’s Mostert added: “It’s created controversy too. Ever since you [the media] started talking about it since Adelaide, for whatever reason, it’s actually made a mad negative response from the fans by the media fuelling it.”
The sole salve for the Holden horde was Red Bull HRT’s Jamie Whincup shovelling in ahead of Waters, Coulthard and Davison to claim third on the grid for race two.
But he wasn’t buying into the parity discussion, instead focussing on the change from trapezoidal to linear springs for 2019 that have proved a set-up challenge for the factory Holden team.
“It’s no secret we were heavily reliant on twin springs last year and it’s been a big change getting used to linear. But the engineers have done a great job getting my car balanced,” he said.
The Ford Mustang’s performance is not a big surprise as it was expected to be strong on circuits such as the Melbourne F1 track where aerodynamics play a larger role.
The Supercars will race for 25 laps on Friday, with 13 and 25-lap races on Saturday and another 13-lapper on Sunday.
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