Supercars stars question safety changes to Queensland Raceway

Some of the Supercars Championship field has united in questioning track changes made to Queensland Raceway after their last appearance at the Ipswich circuit, claiming the safety measures have done nothing to how they go about their laps.

Extended Vallelunga kerbs have been added on the exits of most corners, adding extra space for run off but the aggressive bumps give the negative effect of pad-knock in the brake calipers, creating potential for brake issues at following corners.

After Friday’s practice sessions, the top three drivers in DJR Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin and Tickford’s Chaz Mostert and Will Davison were all sceptical of the changes, saying they haven’t made a difference to how they approach taking the corners.

“I don’t like it, it’s just given us more ability to use more track,” Mostert said.

“I think we’ll see the same results; behind the kerb will still get dug out from guys using every millimetre out there but speeds are up so there’s probably more chance to have a bigger moment.”

Championship leader McLaughlin said drivers will continue to abuse the track limits and that the strong kerbs won’t adjust that behaviour.

“In some ways I have to agree with Chaz, we’re just going to keep doing the same thing and use as much track as we can,” McLaughlin said.

“Obviously there’s probably a judge of fact there now with how much you can use or not but it was interesting when we rocked up to the test day (last week) when that was all done.

“From my point of view I think there’s merit in it but the problem is some of them need to run on a bit longer, so we can’t use the full extent of most of them because you’ve got to get back to the asphalt,” Davison said.

“Where they’re placed I think they could be extended a little bit. At Turn 2 and 5 you can exploit a bit more but the others haven’t really changed where you drive on track and it’s created some brake knock-off issues because they’re quite aggressive.

“You’ve got to be careful with pumping the pedal because we’re getting a lot of knock-off; if you use all the kerb then your brake pedal goes long which creates a bit of a challenge.”

The Supercars field will hit the track at 10:35am local time tomorrow for the last practice session ahead of the tree-part qualifying and 120km race on Saturday.