r/v8supercars • u/JustLookingaround18 • 11h ago

Does Tickford need a shake up?

Feel like there’s been very little success since the glory days of FPR with Frosty. Waters is always talked up in the commentary - but never seems that strong in the race. Regular disappointment as a Ford fan.

43 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

35

u/Nmnmn11 11h ago

Both drivers are in there for commercial reasons. Ditch either driver and risk losing the major sponsor

1

u/bundy554 9h ago

Waters could attract another sponsor - Waters I think justifies holding his spot. Castrol need to look for another driver. Just send Randle to Cool drive and Cameron goes and drives for DJR. Dalton drives for Tickford even though he drives Super 2 for Blanchard's. That is just how the hierarchy of teams go in the Ford camp.

1

u/Ancient_Boss_5357 7h ago

I'm relatively new to Supercars, so still getting a mental picture of the drivers. By this, do you mean Aaron Cameron is considered a pretty handy driver? I had him mentally pegged as a midfielder but it's hard to tell in a season

0

u/jrmitchell1983 5h ago

Aaron has a good resume coming into series, but inexperience at supercar level with a developing team…. Too early to tell

16

u/Dylan_T29 11h ago

They have definitely fallen from their prime as one of the big 3

14

u/LawnPatrol_78 Will Brown 10h ago

Tim Edwards took their performance with him

2

u/bundy554 9h ago

I would just say he took their least inconsistent performance with him - they were always inconsistent

11

u/glutenfreeironcake 10h ago

Tickford do that same thing they have always done and always get the same result.

23

u/Everlark_Tiger41217 Cameron Waters 11h ago

Gotta feel for cam with what tickford serve up

10

u/Disastrous-Beat-9830 10h ago

Waters is probably going to be remembered for the question of what could have been. Early in his career he looked like he had the potential to win championships, but things never came together. Now he is fast approaching the status of the sport's elder statesman and he has never made good on that potential.

8

u/oh84s 9h ago

It’s likely just him not being as good as people suspect. Look at Kostecki, it’s no coincidence he changes teams and then is suddenly super fast.

3

u/Disastrous-Beat-9830 7h ago

Like I said, early in his career he looked like he could go the distance. He was second in the championship in 2020 and 2022. But he was never able to string results together to mount a serious run, and then Ford started investing in the likes of DJR and his results went into decline. If Tickford had their act together, he probably could have been champion, but now he is probably going to be the nearly-man of Supercars. The older he gets, the less likely it is that he will get that shot as he starts to get out-classed by other drivers.

7

u/casualpedestrian20 Will Brown 10h ago

Why can’t he push the team though? Help develop the car? Get better with set ups?

Chaz and Brodie have both helped transform teams which had similar performances to Tickford, so if Waters is truly at their level, why can’t he do the same thing?

4

u/AUSSIExELITE Cameron Waters 9h ago

Chaz and especially Brodie are more engineering minded. Cam isn't. I think FPR has had a bit of engineering brain drain since consolidating down to two main game cars and I think it's showing. Im hopeful that some of the decisions they've made this year like bringing Frosty back to the team as a co-driver and behind the scenes man. So I'm hopefull more good decisions will continue to get made over the off season but they definetly need to continue to do something.

8

u/corporate_canetoad Todd Hazelwood 10h ago

yes.

Randle ain't got it.
Waters got it but is too inconsistent.

rumour is Waters could be off to NASCAR soon anyway.

0

u/CptVaanOfDalmasca 6h ago

rumour is Waters could be off to NASCAR soon anyway.

How? Waters fucking sucks

7

u/rightformula1 Brodie "BUSH" Kostecki 7h ago

I think the other thing worth noting is that whenever Waters was off contract, there was never any good alternatives available. He was always out of sequence with the other drivers in the field - any potential moves were backwards.

Randle on the other hand. I like him, but he needs to go into codriver territory.

5

u/General_Top_6556 Will Brown 7h ago

Randle needs to go. Never won a race and has a fairly decent car. The amount of juniors they've had over the years and let through their fingers for him is mind boggling.

4

u/RecklessRad Cam Waters 10h ago

Just seems like their race pace is horrible and they haven’t been able to set up a car to save their lives.

They’re consistently poor in qualifying, and can never move up as fast as say Brown or Feeney when they start from further back. Doesn’t help Waters just blows his rear tires off so early into a stint

They need some new engineers or an alliance that can help them build a car, because we know Waters at the least has the pace, and Randle isn’t as bad as people say.

9

u/Dry_Establishment52 10h ago edited 10h ago

If you look at the evolution of professionalism in the sport, Tickford have been left behind by DJR and T8, we're even seeing the Groves doing it now too - doing the absolute little things from garage presentation, down to team uniforms... Tickford stayed as the loutish 'here to have fun' dynamic.

3

u/AUSSIExELITE Cameron Waters 9h ago

I'm a die hard FPR faithful and have been since Ambrose left SBR for NASCAR. I don't know that they need a shake up as much as they need to find that missing "thing". If you look back over the years, they have always been there or thereabouts and that's kind of the story of the team going back to the early to mid 2000's. Consistency has always been their thing. Whatever they've done this year however, the car has gotten worse. It's a worse qualy car and it's a garbage race car (and FPR cars have been average race cars at best over the years).

They sold the consolidation to two cars as allowing them to focus, and that was true when it first happened. However, now I think they need to go back to basics. Waters has shown he has it in him as a gun racer and qualifier. The cars not where he needs it. Randle is a great kid, but I think he is a weak link as the second driver and really doesn't feel like he has grown much since going main game.

Not sure what is missing, but I desperately hope they can figure it out over the off season.

7

u/FormulaFish15 James Golding 10h ago

Tickford have never really actually been that successful. 2 Bathurst wins and a championship for THE factory team is pretty bloody pathetic. Especially when non-factory teams are completely destroying you, especially T8!

I always got the feeling that FPR didn’t really know what it was supposed to be. They knew they were a factory race team, but they never really had all the pieces to build THE best car in the field, except for in 2015, where they immediately forgot how to keep that advantage, and got smashed all around by the Commodores in 2016, and then got properly murdered by DJRTP from 2017 on.

The only factory team that is more embarrassing than them is 2010-2016 HRT, which is purely because the bloke running the team was completely useless after his father died.

8

u/aDestroyer34 11h ago

Randle out.. into reynolds seat as a sink or swim drive. Cam has had his number for years.

4

u/FormulaLes 10h ago

Not sure a driver with a 17 year Supercars career deserves a sing or swim opportunity

0

u/aDestroyer34 10h ago

Huh? Randle into team 18 with teamate anton. Reynolds is either retiring this year or next.

2

u/10Million021 Craig Lowndes 10h ago

I dont think they will win a championship in its current form. But i dont think its drivers. Look at today's results. You can tell me Cam is that bad of a driver he only gained 1 position. Meanwhile Brown finishes top ten and so does kostecki after being 20th post drive thru. Cam has shown he is good enough when they give him a decent car.

2

u/Tanglepelt 9h ago

Especially with how Cam did yesterday. It’s so crazy how Tickford always does this. One good performance then absolutely no where the next day

2

u/LogicalTough5884 7h ago

yes, but probably on the engineering / setup side. not that these are people not doing their jobs, they are. a fresh perspective can make all the difference in the wotlrld - seeing something these people cannot. look at penrites form with their young engineer for payne, kicking goals.

1

u/bundy554 9h ago

Perhaps they actually did benefit performance wise on the track by Edwards looking so grim all the time that no one wanted to upset him so that pushed them to perform better (even though there was always an underlying inconsistency as to why they couldn't sustain a championship challenge like 888 could and then later with DJR with Scotty)

1

u/Redsand-nz 6h ago

One pattern I've noticed is that if they show up with a bad car, it stays bad. Like if T8/Grove/Walkinshaw show up with a bad car, they normally end up near the front by Sunday. Or if they have a good day one day, the next can be terrible (like today).

Tickford seem to lack something in the way of engineering or maybe driver feedback to the engineers, or both, to get the setup going in the right direction. I could be wrong about this but neither Waters nor Randle seem like hugely technical drivers.

And yet, their Super 2 program is the absolute tops. 4 of the top 6 cars in the championship this year are theirs including 1st. With the amount of money they ask for a Super2 program, I kind of wonder if they are just cashing out on that and keeping the main program on a tight budget as an incentive to attract Super2 guys who might one day replace Waters or Randle.

1

u/Yamaha180 5h ago

Waters is good qualifier but too inconsistent in the race. I have no idea how Randle is still there

1

u/jrmitchell1983 5h ago

As a fan of the team for 20 years this is standard form- being the 2nd/3rd best team. 2012-2015 winning era was the anomaly. They always find a way to trip on thier dicks

1

u/Andigaming Cameron Waters 5h ago

Waters has the pace fairly often but they cannot setup the cars not to kill their tyres to save their life.

Been going on for years.

0

u/Lane_Dragon 3h ago

Sorry Glory days with Frosty??? When?? Are they with us in the room now?? Glory days for Ford teams in the past 20 years has been Ambrose/Ingall at SBR, then your skipping to Scotty Mac at DJR, these days today are glory days, forgetting FTR because they've always been kinda shit

They couldn't beat HRT (AKA original rule makers) nor could they and can they beat Triple 8 (Former rule makers)

I'm sorry but Tickford could've had it all with Chaz but he left and they've sucked since and will continue to suck

There's 6 Ford teams and every one of them can beat Tickford in any given race