They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Chaz Mostert is hoping that they’re right.
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The end of the 2024 season was brutal for Mostert and his Walkinshaw Andretti United team. After a pair of podiums to open the campaign and a Sydney sweep in the middle of the series he found himself second in the championship and closing in fast on leader Will Brown, and by the eve of the endurance season he was within 100 points of top spot.
It was a gargantuan turnaround from the winless disappointment of 2023, and with the wind seemingly in WAU’s sails, it seemed like something special was blowing in the breeze.
Sometimes motorsport can be cruel like that.
From daring to dream, Mostert and WAU slumped to a series of middling results. While Brown and Brodie Kostecki cleaned up in the lucrative enduros, Mostert could finish no higher than fifth, and it would take until the final race of the year for him to mount the podium again.
By then the title had already gone to Brown and Feeney had recaptured second in the standings.
The disappointment was immediate, but even in this stinging defeat there was a silver lining.
Third on the drivers table was Mostert’s highest finish in two years. The same place in the teams standings was WAU’s best result in its independent era.
After the pain of the team’s transition from General Motors to Ford for 2023, things looked back on track for the former Supercars grandee.
“You’ve got to reflect well on last year,” Mostert tells Fox Sports. “We had a really, really successful year compared to the year we had before, and we grew a lot.
“I feel like for us last year was really our first year with Gen3 as a product and learning our car. I can’t really look to the year before that.
“I’ve been with the team quite a few years now, but we were building great momentum with the previous generation car, then obviously Gen3 come along and we kind of took one step back.
“Last year I think we got back to probably some of the best racing and best results we’ve had since I’ve been with the team.”
The raw stats bear that out.
The 2022 season was Mostert’s best with WAU, delivering him five victories and 14 podiums across 34 races, a hit rate roughly on par with his three wins and 11 podiums over last season’s much shorter 24-race campaign.
There were episodes through the year during which the veteran was on fire. While his car didn’t quite have enough to beat Triple Eight to victory on the opening Bathurst weekend, he clocked overall victory in Perth, and three weekends later he dominated in Sydney to put himself on what appeared to be a title-contending trajectory.
But there were just as many episodes of dire underperformance that ultimately comprised his terminal deficit to the leaders.
Supercars launch season in Sydney | 00:52
Usually those bad weekends were linked by the super soft tyre, which the team consistently struggled to master.
That same tyre compound is being carried over to this season alongside a new soft tyre, which replaces the previous hard and soft compounds in Dunlop’s portfolio.
It’s been a key lesson for the Victorian squad to stew on during the off-season. The super soft won’t be in action until the sport reaches New Zealand in April, but the first signs of whether the team has better understood its set-up problems will come as soon as this weekend at the technically demanding Sydney Motorsport Park.
“There are a lot of things we want to try this weekend to really try to build the fastest car we can,” he says. “We had a great car last year, but there’s always room for improvement.
“Who knows if that’s taking a couple of steps back to go quite a few steps forward — we might have to take that transition, but we’ll just wait and see.
“We’ll work out by Sunday night if we’ve got a lot of work to do or if we’re in the mix, and we’ll keep grinding away.”
But if WAU is found wanting, it’ll be far from panic stations. If there were ever a season to start on the back foot, it would be 2025.
The sport’s new finals format massively deprioritises consistency and early form. The objective of the first 25 races — the Sprint Cup — is to cement a place comfortably inside the top 10 and focus on finding form for the three final knockout weekends of the season.
Mostert isn’t counting on it, but knowing he and the team have time in their pocket to troubleshoot problems changes the game.
“You’ve got the ability in the first couple of rounds to be really, really aggressive, to try and make sure that you’ve got your eye definitely down the road and trying to give your best car performance in the last three rounds and really nail that out,” he says.
“We lose a lot of testing this year, and the only place you’re going to be able to do that testing is actually on those race weekends and trying to make your car faster and get that preference with the car that the driver’s chasing.
“There’s plenty of things that we will try at the start of this year. We’re still building off a very successful year last year too, so it’s not like it’s a complete fresh start, but you’re just trying to do the things that you thought you would have done last year a little bit differently.”
‘Plenty of ponies!’: Kostecki on Mustang | 00:54
There’s a further quirk to consider if Mostert is to make the most of the opportunity presented by the new format.
With two of the three finals races run on street circuits — including, most importantly, the title decider in Adelaide — developing a car that’s complaint over the kerbs and confidence inspiring against the walls becomes considerably more important.
But with only three or four tracks — depending on whether you include Albert Park — on this year’s 13-round calendar are street circuits, it’s an unnatural trade-off.
“There’s definitely an element of it, for sure,” Mostert says. “I think Townsville’s one of those race weekends where you will definitely look to see how competitive you are there to get that edge in those last two or three.
“We’ve always got our work cut out for us. There’s definitely an element of needing to be good on street circuits for those final three races — there’s a big pressure-cooker moment about to happen into the last three rounds.
But while the finals will sit perpetually in the back of the minds of the frontrunners throughout the season, the opening round in Sydney looms larger.
Like almost every round of the season, the Sydney 500 is taking on a new format this weekend comprising three races beginning with an opening sprint on Friday after just 30 minutes of practice.
It’s impossible to predict form for the first round of the season. Even Wednesday’s official pre-season test was heavily disrupted, though all the familiar teams found their way towards the top of the times eventually.
Using last year’s Sydney SuperNight as a forecast, however, produces a clear favourite.
Mostert won both races from third and second on the grid respectively in his and the team’s most convincing weekend of the year, the WAU Mustang at home around the aerodynamically sensitive permanent course.
Mostert isn’t buying into the hype, arguing different conditions make comparisons difficult to make.
“It’s a different time of the year, and people don’t factor that in,” he says. “Even though it’s the same tarmac that we raced on last year, same corners, same layout, the time of year makes a massive difference as well.
“I’m pretty keen to get into it, pretty keen to see the new format where we’re racing on a Friday and have three races across the weekend as well.”
But those happy Sydney memories from last season will buoy Mostert all the same.
His double victory was a sign that WAU was moving in the right direction, a notion of which even the disappointment of title defeat could even disabuse him.
Having righted the wrongs of 2023, from Mostert’s perspective the only way is up.
“It’s not easy to keep trying to get better each year, but every year I’ve been with Walkinshaw Andretti United — except for that first year with Gen3, which was just such a culture shock for us — I honestly think that we’ve grown massively together, and the results have as well,” he says.
“Last year it was really cool to be talked about as being in the championship hunt at one point. Definitely the year didn’t finish out the way we wanted it to, but I’m trying to really use that as motivation this year, and I know the team is as well.
“We were in a position last year to be a part of it, and obviously this year we want to try and go on with it. I’m keen to use that hurt as positivity.
“Hopefully we can get our Mustang rocket in there for the last three rounds and put on a show and try and win the championship. That’s what we’re here for.”
If what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, Mostert’s never been in better shape to take on the challenge of the Supercars championship.
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Publish date : 2025-02-19 12:27:00
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