Driver attitude crucial for Gen3

The Supercars field will line up in an all-new generation of car this year for the first time since the introduction of Car of the Future in 2013.

Even then, the move to Gen3 is considered a bigger step given the lower, wider stance from the new control chassis, the new V8 engines, and the significant drop in downforce.

The running so far as has indicated that lap times will be comparable to the Gen2 cars, although that is likely to be circuit specific due to the different nature in which the cars make their speed.

While the drop in downforce is mitigated by less weight, better straightline speed and more mechanical grip, the cars are clearly more difficult to drive than their well-refined predecessors.

According to Ryan, drivers embracing that challenge, rather than longing for the previous generations cars, will be play a big role in teams getting up to speed in the early part of this season.

And having watched his drivers Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki at the Sydney Motorsport Park test, where they finished second and third respectively, he's confident they've got the right attitude.

"The drivers are really positive, that's the main thing," Ryan told Motorsport.com.

"They know the cars aren't as nice to drive [as the Gen2 cars], but they aren't seeing it as a negative. They're saying, 'this is what we've got, so we've got to learn how to drive it faster'.

"I asked Will how it compares to a Gen2 on a new tyre, and he said, 'it's nothing like it. It's completely different, you've got to drive it completely differently – but you've just got think about where you make you lap time'.

"If the drivers are positive, you're more than half way there."

Erebus is among the teams to have now used their pre-season allocation of test days, which means the next time it rolls out its Coca-Cola Camaros will be the first practice session for the Newcastle 500 on March 10.

Ryan is confident they'll do that with a solid direction on set-up based on learnings from the Winton and SMP running.

"The set-up that we had at Winton, which thought was pretty good, we did all the stuff that you would normally do from Winton to [SMP], and it translated really well," he said.

"Once we had a decent balance out the gate we could try and test things and we went a bit backwards and a bit forwards. We tested a heap of stuff for when we come back [to Sydney] in August, so it was good."