Reigning Supercars champion Brodie Kostecki admits he’s still trying to find his feet as he prepares to return to the series after two races on the sidelines.
Kostecki and his Erebus squad announced their shock reunion this week after reports of a sensational falling out between team and driver during the off-season.
The 26-year-old will start his title defence at next weekend Taupō Super400 in New Zealand.
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In preparation for his return, Kostecki got back behind the wheel of his Erebus Camaro for a test day at Winton Motor Raceway today, where he admitted he still had work to do to get back up to racing speed.
“It’s just all about trying to find my feet again,” he said. “It’s like riding a bike — you have a few wobbles and then you find your feet.
“I’m still a little bit behind the car, so I have a few small things to work on for the rest of the day.
“I’ve got a little bit of catching up to do, but I’m not too bothered.”
Kostecki’s preparation started before today’s test, including reuniting with his race engineer, George Commins.
“I’ve been working very closely with George,” he said. “We’ve spent the last three days together. I’ve been out at Norwell a fair bit since the announcement just trying to play catch-up.
“I’ve had a few tune-ups from a few people around the joint that have been very pivotal in my career so far to date, but I’m so far pretty happy with the day so far.”
Kostecki’s return will finally enable Erebus to run the number one on the car in recognition of its first drivers championship.
“Definitely it’s great to see a lot of the boys in the team and to be able to run the number one and show all the hard work that they put in last year,” Kostecki added. “Seeing all the smiles on their faces has been pretty cool.”
Erebus CEO Barry Ryan hailed Kostecki’s long-awaited comeback as completing the team after an off-season of turmoil.
“It’s a sort of back to normal,” he said. “We would’ve liked to have started the year like that, but unfortunately we couldn’t.
“It’s just great to see Brodie happy and healthy and ready to go. It’s just like we left Adelaide at the end of last year. It’s always a good vibe here, and we all know each other really well. We’ve been together a long time.
“It’s great. It’s no different to how we finished at the end of last year. Everybody’s just ready to go. We’ve go the number one on the car. It’s pretty exciting.”
Ryan said Kostecki’s transition back into the cockpit had been smooth.
“He’s just done his homework in the background, prepared himself, spent a lot of time with Paul [Morris] at Norwell on his sim — all the stuff that he does and all the stuff that makes him as good as he is he just does,” he said.
“You don’t need to push Brodie. He pushes himself and pushes us hard enough that we don’t need to push him.”
Erebus has underperformed in 2024 relative to last year’s dizzying title success over Triple Eight, lagging a distant fifth in the teams championship and with Jack Le Brocq 12th on the drivers title table.
Kostecki’s comeback will be an important barometer of the team’s true standing in 2024, though he was cautious to avoid setting a target for his first race.
“We’ve still got a little bit of work to do and we’ll see how we can go to Taupō,” he said. “Anything’s possible.
“So far I’ve had a pretty good day behind the wheel. We’ll just focus on ourselves, like we did last year, and we’ll see how we end up, but I’m pretty confident we’ll be up towards the front.”