Teammates, tension, tangles: 5 rivalries to watch in 2025

The 2025 Repco Supercars Championship is just around the corner, with drivers and teams getting ready for the Thrifty Sydney 500 - Opening Round on February 21-23.

Before a V8 engine turned over in anger, Supercars.com made its season predictions, while there are several key storylines to keep an eye on and burning questions to answer after lights go out at Sydney Motorsport Park.

If 2024 is anything to go by, we're going to see some seriously good racing, given there's more on the line than ever before as drivers aim to secure a Finals berth.

On the rivalry front, 2010 champion James Courtney wants to fewer buddies and more dust-ups, telling News Corp: "I'm driving up behind someone thinking, 'I don't care how I get past this guy, but I'm getting past'. But those guys are driving up thinking, 'I've got to get past him, but I don't want to upset him because we're going to dinner next week'."

So, we've rounded up five key rivalries that could have a little extra spice in 2025, starting at the very top...

Will Brown vs Broc Feeney

The intra-team battle at Triple Eight Race Engineering bodes to be a big talking point all year, after Will Brown beat Broc Feeney to the drivers' championship last season. We've highlighted maintaining harmony between the duo as Triple Eight's biggest challenge this year, given how well Brown and Feeney raced each other in 2024. Try as some might to fabricate animosity between the two, given they're mates, there's no doubt there'll be some tough debriefs should both drivers reach the Finals.

Triple Eight vs Tickford vs WAU

Triple Eight, Tickford Racing and Walkinshaw Andretti United shared 18 of the 24 wins last season, and were the clear benchmarks throughout the 2024 campaign. Triple Eight started well, winning eight of the first 12 races, but Tickford and WAU clearly closed the gap as the year raged on. Tickford and WAU will expect Thomas Randle and Ryan Wood to be even stronger this season, and if that's the case, there could be some tactics and gamesmanship if teams want to protect wins.

Chaz Mostert vs Cam Waters

One of the great modern Supercars rivalries, Chaz Mostert and Cam Waters have put on many a great show over the years. Last year, their Townsville battle was one of the ages, while Waters also made Mostert work hard in a tense Sydney fight. We're starting 2025 in Sydney, where Waters claimed pole and Mostert won both races. if they're both on the pace, expect them to go into battle once again, right from Round 1.

Brodie Kostecki vs Will Davison

Brodie Kostecki's Dick Johnson Racing move has been one of the stories of the last 12 months, and the 2023 Supercars champion and 2024 Bathurst winner isn't there to make up the numbers. Will Davison, himself a two-time Bathurst winner, is also keen to return to winning ways, and both will be keen to be the first one there in DJR's new era. New cars and new engineers give Davison somewhat of an equal footing, given the weight of such changes. However, the expectation, clearly, is that Kostecki will offer him a big challenge.

Chaz Mostert vs Broc Feeney

Few tangles got fans up and about last season quite like that of Broc Feeney and Chaz Mostert in Adelaide, with the latter sent into a spin in Adelaide. Disputing the lead, Feeney sent Mostert into a spin despite carrying a penalty, with the Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford left to nurse a damaged car home. It was a classic old-school GM vs Ford dust-up, and while Feeney got off lightly from Mostert after the race, WAU won't have forgotten.

Honourable mentions

Cam Waters and Matt Payne made headlines last year after a dramatic incident at the Grand Prix, with Waters berating Payne and slamming the Kiwi's door closed. It was a clear sign of intent by Waters that he wasn't keen on being pushed around by younger drivers. If Payne is alongside him this season, what will happen?

Will Brown and Thomas Randle got together in Perth and Tasmania in two of the highest-profile clashes of the 2024 season. The Tasmania tangle led to tension and a shove in pit lane, and while both drivers moved on, Randle will be keen to get one over the champion early.

Former teammates Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki are now at different teams, with the latter beating Brown to the 2023 championship in a breakout year for Erebus. Brown has already proved himself at Triple Eight, but Kostecki will be keen to get Dick Johnson Racing to the front as quickly as possible to challenge Brown on race day, as he did at the end of 2024 as Erebus returned to form.

There will be two rookies in Cooper Murray and Kai Allen, who will be keen to give new teammates Jack Le Brocq and Matt Payne a run for their money. Murray and Allen were both front-runners in Super2, and proved they weren't pushovers during their wildcard and solo cameos in Supercars over the last two years. Le Brocq and Payne will want to assert themselves, but don't expect Murray and Allen to settle for second-best.

Anton De Pasquale and David Reynolds will be teammates at Team 18, five years after they last raced out of the same garage with Erebus Motorsport. Reynolds was the stronger of the two in 2018 and 2019, but De Pasquale's standout 2020 season helped him score a deal with Dick Johnson Racing. De Pasquale gets a new car in his first season, but Reynolds will be keen to make amends for a bruising 2024.

Tickets for the season-opening round in Sydney, on February 21-23, are on sale now.