Whincup's stance on intra-team battles amid wild racing

12 months ago, as Broc Feeney and Will Brown went at it hammer and tongs in Taupō, you could have forgiven Triple Eight boss Jamie Whincup for needing a lie down after the race.

Feeney and Brown went head-to-head in one of the best exchanges of the 2024 season, with the victory falling the way of the eventual champion Brown.

For all the tension, what-ifs and drama, the two barely traded any paint, as they have done throughout their 30 races as Triple Eight Race Engineering teammates.

The game has changed in 2025, courtesy of Whincup termed as "fairly loose" racing rules. Already in 2025, there has been plenty of door-to-door action, sometimes ending in collisions.

The most notable example came as Whincup's two drivers went at it with Cam Waters in Sydney, with Waters winning in a drag race finish after first turning Feeney around and redressing, before muscling into position at the final corner on the last lap.

All the while, Brown and Feeney have kept their noses clean where others haven't, and sandwich Waters in first and third in the drivers' standings. It hasn't been without team orders, though, with the drivers forced into action after sharing the front row in Melbourne.

When asked if he has laid down an expectation of his drivers to combat the racing rules, Whincup said. "No, we wanna race hard and fast, and we wanna race clean at the same time.

"The driving standards for the first few rounds have been fairly loose in my eyes. I'm not the fun police. I'm not one to slow it down, but without any rules, there's chaos.

"We need to find a good balance between the two, which we're all still sort of trying to find a happy medium with, to be honest.

"Of course we had an unbelievable round [at Taupō] last year, but the past doesn't guarantee anything. We've absolutely gotta be on our A-game again to be competitive.

"That's certainly the plan, but that's the plan for everyone as well.”

Whincup admitted Triple Eight got "dusted pretty hard" by Waters in Sydney, with the Tickford Racing driver powering to three wins and three poles.

On the opening round, Whincup said: "We just underperformed. "We got dusted pretty hard at Sydney Motorsport Park. So, it was nice to show some really good pace at the Grand Prix.”

Sydney prompted Brown and Triple Eight Team Manager Mark Dutton into calls to action, and the team delivered in Melbourne. Brown claimed overall weekend honours and won a race, Feeney won a race and claimed all four poles, and Triple Eight took over the lead in both championships. It all came as the team batted away off-track distractions, as alluded to by Whincup.

However, while Triple Eight was streets ahead in Taupō last year, Whincup wasn't casting any early predictions for 2025, given the new Super 440 format will expose teams to two different tyre compounds in a single day.

"We didn't get it right back in the day when it was optional compounds,” Whincup said.

"Now, everyone's on the same compound at the same time that works well. It gives everyone the opportunity to qualify on pole.

"But then it's a real challenge, a real engineering-driving challenge to get the most out of your package, when you’ve got very little experience on the tyre that's underneath you."

Brown leads Waters by seven points, with Feeney 49 points behind, with the 2025 season resuming in New Zealand on April 11-13. Tickets on sale now.