'We can win': Triple Eight confident Brown is leaving slump behind

Will Brown is on the right track in a crucial area to become a regular win contender, says championship-winning race engineer Andrew Edwards.

The 2024 Supercars champion finished no higher than seventh through the opening six races of the season, and was twice penalised for on-track incidents. The damage had arguably been done in qualifying, Brown starting no higher than fifth in Sydney, punctuated by a worst of 13th.

Confidence grew as Brown crept closer towards the front of the field throughout the weekend in Melbourne, improving from 12th to 10th, then sixth.

It culminated in a brilliant pole position for the Grand Prix finale, sparking wild celebrations from the 2024 Supercars champion, who had been stacked against teammate Broc Feeney's great performance and waves of criticism.

While Brown was unable to convert in the race, bowling a wide to allow Brodie Kostecki through, the Red Bull Ampol Racing driver gave himself a platform to attack from lights out with a first front row start since August, and second in just 28 starts.

Edwards, who is chasing a second Jason Richards Trophy win to go alongside his emotional 2013 and 2022 triumphs, is confident his driver is heading in the right direction.

"I don’t want to put pressure on either of us, to be honest," Edwards told Supercars.com.

"I just want to work through the process, and that’s what we’re doing.

“If we are good enough, we can win. And I do think we're good enough to win. Now, the results in the last 12 months might not suggest that we're favourites, but we've shown before that our race cars are very good.

“We just need to get it right in qualifying, and I’m seeing more evidence that that's happening lately now.”

The affable Brown wasn't panicking after Melbourne, despite sitting 13th in points.

Speaking after the Grand Prix finale, Brown said his 2024 title was proof he can get the job done.

"It's motorsport, at the end of the day I go back to 2024 when I felt like I couldn't get anything wrong. I wouldn't get in crashes, we were lucky each weekend with certain tyres," the Queenslander said.

"The last six months I feel like I can't do anything right. So we've got to work on that, try not to put ourselves in bad positions, and that sort of stuff.

"When you qualify up the front it's easy. You look at that race today, no damage, racing with good competitors up the front. Got to work on that qualifying to get up there, and we've shown we can win a championship. We'll be back up there."

Brown is just 37 points from a provisional Finals position heading to the ITM Taupō Super 440.