'Big' penalties warned to Supercars drivers for race manipulation

Supercars drivers have been warned of the consequences for deliberate race manipulation tactics.

Team tactics were a hot topic leading into the first ever Repco Supercars Finals Series, with the bp Adelaide Grand Final field set at Sandown. There, Ryan Wood played his 'rear-gunner' role to perfection, delaying Will Brown to help teammate Chaz Mostert win the race.

However, some teams warned over unfair tactics throughout The Finals, Penrite Racing boss David Cauchi saying: "We don't want to see reckless driving, and cars being taken out and all that sort of jazz, that's not good for the sport. We want to see what Supercars is about, it's hard, close, fair racing."

Additionally, Erebus Motorsport CEO Barry Ryan said that officials must "warn that there's going to be big fines."

That has now come to fruition, with a message understood to have been sent by Motorsport Australia officials to the drivers WhatsApp group before the Sandown finale, warning drivers that a fine of up to 250,000 euros ($444,000 AUD), disqualification and a possible race ban could be awarded for extreme misconduct.

Before The Finals, Motorsport Australia Driving Standards Advisor Craig Baird told Supercars.com that there will be "major" consequences for teams that cross the line to influence the championship fight. Baird cited the 2019 Bathurst 1000, when DJR Team Penske were fined $250,000 and deducted 300 teams' points, as to how severely teams can be punished for on-track matters.

Such penalties have been reiterated to drivers, with champions Brown and Brodie Kostecki revealing on their Lucky Dogs podcast that drivers were warned over potential consequences.

The FIA’s International Sporting Code explicitly prohibits "any infringement of the principles of fairness in competition" or behaviour in an unsportsmanlike manner.

“I think Motorsport Australia, for them and the FIA and everything, one, you can’t fix a race… and the other thing is, you can’t take someone out deliberately,” Brown said.

“If anything is looked at as being deliberate, like NASCAR seemed to get away with it, [but] not over here. “We can rub now, and we’ve definitely loosened the rules up a bit there, but you can’t just punt someone off to try and get through, which kind of happens in NASCAR.”

In a 2023 update announced after a World Motorsport Council event, the FIA confirmed the maximum fine limit had been increased as it had "not been reviewed nor amended for at least the last 12 years and does not reflect the current needs of motorsport”.

The maximum fine for F1 competitors was increased to €1,000,000, €750,000 for the other FIA world championships (World Rally, World Endurance, Formula E, World Rally-Raid and World Rallycross) and €500,000 for all other FIA championships, cups, trophies, challenges or series.

A fine upwards of $300,000 AUD would be the largest in Supercars history.

Before the Sandown weekend, Brown poked fun at the title fight with a cheeky social media video by jokingly presenting fellow drivers with “gifts”.

Tickford Racing star Cam Waters also quipped on Saturday night that he’d “come out swinging, take some cars out, do whatever we need to do” to qualify for the Grand Final.

"That’s a lot of money when you convert it… I’m gonna have to sell my house,” Brown continued.

"That was interesting, and I think it was also that you could be disqualified from an event or not race at the next event. So that was pretty big.

"But I think that once again, this new format… the talk in the drivers chat was that people were gonna help each other. And I felt like it probably wasn’t a bad thing them putting that [warning] out.

"Because someone like poor old [Thomas] Randle maybe might have been out and Cam has to get in, and the team asked him to do something."

Team orders are allowed in Supercars. Per Rule 25.1.1, "an instruction to a Driver or Team member, either verbal or otherwise the effect of which may interfere with a race result."

However, per Rule 25.1.2, teams cannot be influenced by third parties, such as "any sponsor, supplier, entity or related entity, including an Automobile manufacturer, importer or their representative."

In short, teams are allowed to order their cars to reposition on track. They can also sacrifice one to help the other on strategy. But the call must come from the team, and the team alone, not from third parties.

Chevrolet and Ford have two drivers each in Adelaide: Brown and Triple Eight teammate Broc Feeney, and Mostert (Walkinshaw Andretti United) and Kai Allen (Penrite Racing).

Given what’s at stake, Kostecki rubbished suggestions teams would go to such lengths to manipulate races. Regardless, officials have already taken a dim view of deliberate contact this season. Notably, Cameron Hill was hit with a dangerous driving charge over repeated side-to-side contact with rookie Zach Bates in Ipswich.

“There’s so many different arguments and stuff. Like when I read it, I just laughed at it,” Kostecki said.

“You can always get away with it. Like they’re never gonna be able to penalise you, unless you just turn hard right down the straight and take someone out.”

Track action in Adelaide commences on Thursday November 27.