Mostert explains reason behind WAU slump
Super Soft tyre WAU's Achilles heel, says Chaz Mostert
Mostert 22nd, Ryan Wood 23rd in Darwin Qualifying
Mostert and Wood locked out Perth front row last month
Chaz Mostert says Walkinshaw Andretti United has yet to get its cars in a performance window with the Super Soft tyre, following a tough Friday for the team.
After dominating the last round in Perth, WAU dropped back to earth at Hidden Valley Raceway on Friday, with Mostert 22nd and Ryan Wood 23rd in Race 11 Qualifying.
Mostert and Wood locked out the front row for the Perth opener, but four weeks later, were at risk of filling the last row for Saturday’s Darwin opener.
The #25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang was 0.7871s off the ultimate pace, and 0.5322s behind the quickest Ford of Anton De Pasquale.
It’s a blow to Mostert’s championship hopes, with the Perth winner eating into Will Brown’s points lead over the Perth weekend.
Speaking after Qualifying, Mostert said WAU hasn’t got on top of the Super Soft tyre, which is being used at this weekend’s betr Darwin Triple Crown.
Conversely, Mostert was on the pace on the Soft tyre at the Grand Prix and Taupō, and the Hard tyre at Mount Panorama.
“Probably a bit of our concern coming into the weekend was the Super Soft tyre, and clearly our cars are not in the window with that,” Mostert said.
“Thankful that tomorrow we've got a practice session before we go into the race, obviously gutted not to be in the top 10, after what we just finished in Perth.
"But these are the days that you try to build a championship. So yeah, when you have your bad ones, it's how you bounce back. We've got an awesome crew here. We’ll work really extremely hard tonight."
Mostert is confident his team will turn it around, saying the issue was reflected across to the Wood entry.
“Obviously on this tyre with this car, just missing the philosophy of it,” he continued.
“We changed a lot from the practice to the qualifying with the same net result, I think, for performance… it’s just another cross and we'll hopefully find a tick by the time the race comes along.
“Me and Woody are about the same. We just had no response from the car in practice. Just feels like lack of grip.
“We clearly missed the mark there with something, so chucked a few things into that session and I actually think that was probably the wrong way. [Sam Scaffidi, Race Engineer] is really good at looking from run-to-run looking at performance.
“Long weekend, obviously starting P-nowhere.”
Mostert remained in good spirits despite the result, joking: “Back in the karting days, dad would offer me a cheeseburger every time I passed a car, so I’ll have to get my elbows out tomorrow.”
The two-time Bathurst winner is 175 points behind Brown, who qualified fifth on Friday, behind shock provisional pole-sitter James Golding.
