The next step for Broc Feeney

Feeney, in just his second full Supercars season, has made an impressive start to the Gen3 era, emerging as a very real title contender this year.

He has had the measure of Triple Eight teammate Shane van Gisbergen more often than not this season, something that seemed impossible during van Gisbergen's dominant 2021 and 2022 seasons in the Gen2 hardware.

Feeney currently has four wins to his name and sits third in the points, 91 behind leader Brodie Kostecki – and would be leading had it not been for the controversial disqualification in Newcastle.

His development from solid rookie to title hopeful may have been rapid, but T8 team boss – and seven-time Supercars champion – Jamie Whincup isn't letting the 20-year-old get ahead of himself.

Whincup joked in Darwin that Feeney still needs to "lift his game" in a few areas, before adding a more serious warning that winning races is one thing, but winning titles is another.

"Broc is going okay. He needs to lift his game a little bit here and there, he's a bit shabby around the edges," said Whincup.

"But he's on track, for sure. As you say, it's always a risk to put an 18-year-old in the car [for his rookie season]. But we had full faith to give him all the tools to do the job, and he's slowly growing.

"To be a race winner is one thing, you've got to get to the point where you can win races. But to win championships is another thing as well. But he's well and truly on track."

Broc Feeney, Triple Eight Race Engineering Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Photo by: Edge Photographics

Whincup later circled back to his comments and added: "I was pretty harsh to Broc, but my job is to make sure Broc doesn't read his own press and get too far ahead of himself.

"Obviously he's doing an unbelievable job and nobody is doubting that, but I'm trying to calm it all down at the same time."

Feeney does appear to be remaining measured amid his run of form, refusing to be drawn into talking about his title chances when pressed by Motorsport.com in Darwin.

"It's been good. I think I said it a few rounds ago; if we can get out consistency right, we've got the pace, when we qualify at the front, to get race wins," he said.

"This weekend was a good one, ticking the boxes for me.

"I felt like coming into this year I had good confidence and I knew it was an equal playing field and a good opportunity for people to step up."

Perhaps most surprising is the fact Feeney is ahead of van Gisbergen in the points, the Kiwi having been near unbeatable for the past two seasons.

That's another thing Feeney is keeping a lid on, though, the young gun not losing sight of just how good his teammate is.

"Obviously I like winning races, and if you win races you're ahead of everyone else," he said.

"But it's about working together as a team. We're not as strong as we need to be at the moment. We want both cars up there consistently.

"I still think he's the guy to beat and he's probably the best guy on the grid. There's no doubting that. It shows in the races, he's still got great pace.

"I'm really enjoying working with him. It's been great, we get on super well. We're just a couple of mates going racing together and helping each other out when we can."