Supercars legend Jamie Whincup has labelled the ongoing Brodie Kostecki saga at rival team Erebus Motorsport ‘strange’, but believes the reigning champion’s absence – as well as the lack of other recent champions on the grid – presents a huge opportunity for his team in 2024.
Whincup is a part-owner of Triple Eight, where he won all seven of his Supercars titles before retiring from full-time driving at the end of 2021.
With two other champions Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen now racing in IndyCar and NASCAR respectively, Kostecki’s absence from the grid for next week’s season-opener in Bathurst means that just two former Supercars title winners will line up in 2024.
Kostecki is currently locked in talks over a potential exit from Erebus, where he won the title last year, but could spend the entire season sidelined.
Mark Winterbottom is the most recent winner, from 2015, while David Reynolds reigned supreme in 2010.
It has led to some concerns that the looming season will feature a weaker grid in terms of driver quality.
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But the ‘opportunist’ Whincup thinks that his pair of drivers in Broc Feeney (third in 2023) and Erebus recruit Will Brown can add their name to the list of champions this season.
And the seven-time champ says a huge turnout of supporters for Triple Eight’s unveiling of the 2024 car at Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport last weekend shows the “sport is strong”.
“We’re obviously focused on our job, which has been to launch our cars,” he told Wide World of Sports.
“About 10,000 people rocked up to see a new livery and get Supercars on the way, (so) the sport’s strong if you do it right.
“But outside of that, it has been quite a strange week.
“I’m an opportunist in some regards, so I see that as an opportunity to crown a new champion in 2024, which is exciting.
“I’ve got two guys that haven’t won a championship yet, so I’m hoping I can create a new champion.”
25-year-old Brown is replacing van Gisbergen at Triple Eight, with 21-year-old Broc Feeney joined by an equally quick race-winner to form a highly-anticipated combination.
No wonder Whincup is excited.
“We don’t count the chickens before they hatch, but we feel confident,” Whincup said.
“I believe we’ve got the youngest, most exciting driver line-up the category has seen for a long, long time, and I’m just as keen as anybody to see how that pans out.
“We’ve got two brand new cars, we’ve got a solid engineering line-up, we’ve got stability – all the engineering team are exactly the same as they were in 2023.
“Right now, all the pieces of the puzzle are certainly there to do a good job, but it’s sport and it comes down to the human element and it comes down to who steps up on the day.”