The block that led to 'tense' Brown/Feeney debrief

Will Brown and Broc Feeney have shed light on how Triple Eight Race Engineering managed their battle for the Repco Supercars Championship, which included a "tense" moment in Tasmania.

A dominant year for Triple Eight saw Brown and Feeney take the fight for the drivers' title to the final round in Adelaide.

Heading to Adelaide, Brown and Feeney had delivered six one-two finishes, and had fought each other for wins in Bathurst, Melbourne, New Zealand and Darwin.

To Adelaide, Brown had largely had Feeney's measure, although there were times the team reminded their rising stars they could race hard, but ensure they didn't trip over each other.

When everything was on the line in Adelaide, the team insisted there would be no team orders, instead leaving it to Brown and Feeney to battle it out on track.

Speaking on Supercars' Drivers Only podcast, Brown revealed there was only one "tense" moment between the duo, when he blocked Feeney into Turn 6 at Symmons Plains before a fateful clash with Thomas Randle.

"Only probably the Tassie one was a bit tense, where I put a block on Broc,” Brown said.

"I think apart from that… any team running at that level, you have some team orders. And then you always have to sort of put your case forward from the engineer as to why should I let him pass, or what.

"So I feel like we don't have the arguments, you know what I mean? We're just listening.”

At the start of the season, Brown and Feeney wrestled over the orange numbers, but the team not only to balance both drivers' expectations, but also manage tyre wear in the breathless Albert Park sprints, held on the tyre-killing Grand Prix circuit.

"We had a little bit of that at the start of the year,” Feeney said.

“We were in a pretty good position at the start of the year, I think we won the first five or so races. At AGP there was like the big, ‘Oh my god, are your tyres going to blow up’, sort of thing.

“There was a few races at the start of the year where it's like, ‘Don't put too much pressure on it’. But when we got to Taupō, they're just like, ‘Yeah boys, you know the rules’.

“If we touch, we're getting a lot of trouble. They're like, ‘Just go for it’… and it was the same at Adelaide."

It came to an early head in New Zealand, where Brown hounded Feeney for laps on end, before ultimately making a clean pass stick.

Both drivers admitted it would have been a much different scenario had they been fighting a driver from another team, Feeney claiming it "would have been done in one lap."

By season's end, team boss Jamie Whincup was happy to avoid a Lewis Hamilton/Fernando Alonso-type boilover, with Brown and Feeney maturely and professionally balancing rivalry with respect.

“[Mark Dutton, Team Manager] is the one that sits down and is like, 'Look, you boys know the rules, don't run into each other, but race hard’, sort of thing,” Feeney said.

"So, it's good when we're in a position where we're out front, like Taupō, and we had a gap, and they're just like, 'You guys can sort it out, don't do anything silly’."

Brown added: “The thing is, you learn in that situation how many times you run into someone to pass them.

"I could have passed this guy if it wasn't my teammate, 10 laps ago… that back corner, the hairpin at Taupō, you'd just get underneath him a bit, a few taps, and burn the tyres off. I can't even hit him. What am I going to do here?

"It was a good year… [we] get along well. It's all been pretty good really."

Brown and Feeney will commence their 2025 campaigns at the opening round in Sydney on February 21-23. Tickets are on sale now.