Supercars great Mark Skaife has reached out to Triple Eight management in a bid to clear the air over his on-air criticism of Shane van Gisbergen’s post-race media conduct in Newcastle, claiming there was “nothing spiteful” intended.
Declaring he did not want the furore to overshadow the debut of the Supercars Gen3 era in the opening race of the year, Skaife said he had contacted Triple Eight boss Jamie Whincup and technical director Jeromy Moore to discuss the issue.
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Van Gisbergen hit back at Skaife in a lengthy social media post on Monday night, labelling the comments from the Fox Sports commentator as a “real kick in the teeth”.
Skaife and fellow commentator Garth Tander were critical of van Gisbergen’s behaviour in his post-race media conference after his Sunday Newcastle win when he curtly declined to answer questions about the race.
Van Gisbergen explained his “adopted media strategy” stemmed from “saying too much publicly” last Friday about the heat of the cars, which had “upset some of the top brass”.
Former Ford rival and triple Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin and former driver Russell Ingall were among those to offer their support for van Gisbergen.
Five-time Supercars champion Skaife said his comments had not intended to be a personal attack, only highlighting the “expectation” van Gisbergen had as the defending champion to be an ambassador for the sport.
“I normally cop flak from everybody for how much support and how complimentary I am of Shane and his performances,” Skaife said.
“Normally when I compliment him on his performances in the car everyone smashes me, saying ‘You’re a Triple Eight fan’ or ‘You’re a van Gisbergen fan’.
“I made sure that my comments the other day were not from (the point of view of) being a board member or hierarchy in any way from Supercars.
“I was making a comment as a Fox Sports commentator regarding what the expectation is of a champion, of an ambassador for our sport. That was simply it.
“There was nothing spiteful (intended), I certainly didn’t want him to feel like I had kicked him in the teeth for instance. It wasn’t that.
“I was making a point that there was a responsibility and a duty under the normal conditions that we play in and that was all.”
In addressing the furore on social media, van Gisbergen said he understood it was “his duty to represent the sport in a good light as champion”, but he was not going to “pretend it’s all roses when it’s not”, referring to his critique of the new Gen3 cars.
Skaife said the on-air panel discussion would have moved on quickly to dissecting the race had it not been for van Gisbergen’s media conference stance.
“If you play out how the press conference would normally run, we would have come back to the desk off the back of the press conference and basically spoken purely about the quality of that race and what had gone on,” Skaife said.
“But we ended up, when Shane refused to answer the question – I tried to do it in the most balanced way that I know – meaning at no point have I ever discredited or been critical of his performance in the car, at all.
“I have been to lots of press conferences over the years (of) mine where I didn’t want to be there – and I put my hand up, totally, that sometimes I could be hard to deal with if it was a bad day, there is no doubt about that stuff.
“But if you compare it to other sports and you think about the captain and coach of a rugby league team that might have lost or got a hiding, they still have to front and talk about it.”
Skaife said he had since reached out Whincup and Moore to discuss the issue and hoped to sit down with the team or van Gisbergen ahead of the next race at the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.
“I called Jamie and Jeromy to say how do you want me to move forward,” Skaife said.
“I made the offer to fly up to Brisbane. I had a really good open discussion with Jeromy and Jamie, Jamie as the CEO of the business and Jeremy the technical director, to talk about the issue with Shane.
“It was a very open and honest discussion and where we finished was Jamie was going to talk to Shane and we would meet up going into the Grand Prix. That’s where I left it and I haven’t spoken to them again, we just have a couple of text exchanges.”
The Sunday press conference furore capped a dramatic weekend for Triple Eight after van Gisbergen and teammate Broc Feeney were disqualified from a 1-2 finish in the first race on Saturday for a breach relating to the driver cooling system, which the team is set to appeal.
SVG BREAKS SILENCE ON MEDIA SNUB AFTER DQ FURORE
—Callum Dick
Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen has poured his heart out on Instagram, explaining why he was so curt in his post-race press conference after Sunday’s race at Newcastle.
Van Gisbergen, 33, is a traditionally private person who, as he explained repeatedly after his thrilling victory on Sunday, prefers to do his “talking on the track”.
But the Red Bull rockstar offered fans a peek behind the curtain on Monday night with a long post to social media explaining his reaction to questions on Sunday and, in general, over the past few months.
“Sorry for this long post, I thought I’d share some thoughts seeing as I kept most things to myself yesterday,” van Gisbergen wrote.
“Most people probably have noticed I have been pretty quiet publicly over the past couple of months. My purpose of writing this is not to ‘explain myself’ nor to expect sympathy for the public bashing that some of us drivers get, I guess I’ve always been told like most of us as kids ‘If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all.’ I will never forget I’m in an extremely fortunate position of being a V8 Supercar driver, my dream job.”
The three-time champion had notably tried to stay as quiet as possible when asked about the development of the Gen3 Chevrolet Camaro ahead of the season opener in Newcastle.
As the sport’s reigning champion and figurehead for Triple Eight, the Chevrolet homologation team, his silence on the subject was conspicuous.
“It’s not a secret I haven’t been a fan of the way the Gen3 car feels and drives, and behind closed doors I’ve been pretty critical of things and tried to make it better, firstly with feedback to the category in the prototype testing and now with my team trying to make the race spec car to my liking,” van Gisbergen explained.
“The category seems to think our complaints and gripes with the car will ‘make better racing’ if we are struggling and we are told to be positive and show the sport in a good light, which of course I understand the last part. I try to be as neutral as I can with my critiques of the car, I act with the intention of representing the drivers trying to make the car better for everyone.”
Many fans felt van Gisbergen’s silence in Sunday’s press conference was in reaction to a supposed talking-to from Supercars officials, in relation to his criticism of the Gen3 cars.
The Kiwi went on to confirm as much in his Instagram post.
“As much as I don’t have a good feeling with the car at the moment it drops perfectly into my strengths – Hard to drive, on edge, hard on tyres. Perfect for me! So what am I complaining about? I guess I want not only myself, but all drivers to be getting out of the car raving about how awesome and fun it is to drive. Which is something that’s not really happening now,” he said.
“Over the weekend I probably said a bit too much publicly on Friday about the heat of the cars, although it did prove fruitful getting extra cooling for the drivers. Many still struggled, including myself with the heat. Unfortunately that upset some of the top brass and hence my adopted media strategy for Sunday ‘if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say it at all’. I just knuckled down and drove my arse off on track.”
Van Gisbergen’s press conference “strategy” received mixed reviews from fans, pundits and stakeholders.
Many fans, on both sides of the Chevy-Ford divide, empathised with van Gisbergen and felt he was well within his rights to respond as he did, given how they felt he had been treated by Supercars.
One person who did not take kindly to the Red Bull star’s curt responses was Supercars legend and Fox commentator, Mark Skaife.
“He has a duty under that scenario – as one of the highest paid – the absolute bloke who’s been the benchmark operator, there’s no one in this industry that in any way, shape or form would ever contend on his driving talent and his incredible talent and his ability is extraordinary,” Skaife said on broadcast.
“But you do, off the track, have a duty – and that (behaviour) is not right.
“You never heard an Allan Moffat or Russell Ingall not answer a question in a press conference. They might have been not as liked, for instance, as a Peter Brock – who was the golden child of this stuff – but at any point there is a duty.”
Van Gisbergen labelled Skaife’s comments a “kick in the teeth”.
“I understand it’s my duty to represent the sport in a good light as Champion, I will do that to the best of my ability by being myself off track, racing hard on track for my team members, team partners and our fans,” he wrote.
“It was a real kick in the teeth hearing those comments from a 5 time champion – someone I look up to and respect. I am not going to pretend it’s all roses when it is not.
“The messages I have received today from fans, friends, colleagues and media members has been surprising and amazing. I was pretty down last night so to have such support today from the people that matter is a great feeling.
“I love my team, they have been awesome this last couple of months helping me prepare and be at my best at Newcastle. I can’t thank them enough.
“See you at the GP. SVG.”