2025 V8 Supercars Championship: What to watch

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The 2025 V8 Supercars Championship is shaping up to be one of the most intense battles for years with new rules, more prize money and major driver changes tossed in with the biggest format shake-up for decades.

It will kick off this week at Sydney Motorsport Park, with cars due on track for first practice at 13:40 on Friday 21 February, before three races under lights– one on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night.

The 13-round, 34-race championship – one round and 10 more races than last year – will finish in Adelaide in November and make one off-shore trip to New Zealand and see a new endurance race at South Australia's The Bend Motorsport Park in between.

There will also be the now customary V8 Supercars starring role at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix in March and the unmissable Bathurst 1000 classic long-distance race in October.

Will Brown – the bright-eyed upstart from Toowoomba – will race with the number one on his Red Bull Ampol Racing Chevrolet Camaro after claiming his maiden title last year in his first season with the team.

It will be the final championship Brown and Broc Feeney – team-mate and runner up to Brown last year – race the Camaro after the Queensland-based outfit announced a shock move to the Ford Mustang for the 2026 season onwards.

Speaking of Ford, the brand's highest placed runner in 2024 was Chaz Mostert in third, whose Optus/Mobil 1 Walkinshaw Andretti United (WAU) team is also switching brands next year – from Ford to Toyota.

Yet there's a salivating battle on track beforehand with the biggest upheavals in decades taking place, including the inaugural Repco Sprint Cup, doubled prize money for the driver with the most pole positions, and a finals format for the first time in the category's six-decade  history. 

First blood has already been drawn by Brown in the first pre-season test at Sydney Motorsport Park – which isn't a true showing of the field's form, anyway – where this weekend's opening round will take place.

Off-track, the existing broadcast rights deal expires at the end of the year, with V8 Supercars pushing its new format and changes to up the level of excitement to entice more bidding – and more lucrative offers – for the rights from 2026.

Finals Series: Fresh Format will prolong the title fight

This year sees the biggest shake up in format for decades, with the introduction of a NASCAR-style 'finals' format designed to keep more drivers in the hunt for the championship longer.

It also adds more accolades along the way: the inaugural Repco Sprint Cup will be awarded to the driver leading after eight rounds, which feature shorter 'sprint' races – two or three at most rounds, four at the Australian Grand Prix.

The Enduro Cup returns and will go to the driver pairing with the most points accumulated across The Bend 500 – the first long-distance race held at the South Australia circuit – and the Bathurst 1000.

The winners of the Sprint Cup and Enduro Cup also secure a place in the first ever V8 Supercars 'Finals Series'.

The Finals Series will see the top ten drivers in the points – plus the Sprint and Enduro Cup winners if they're outside this – battle for the 2025 V8 Supercars Championship over the final three rounds.

That's the Gold Coast 500, Sandown 500 – now two 250km races instead of a single 500km enduro – and the Adelaide 500.

After the Gold Coast, only seven drivers will remain in title contention heading to Sandown, with that cut to four drivers – one of which will be the champion – at Adelaide.

The format will see strategy changes – as drivers and teams look to stay in the fight, with more opportunity even if there is a runaway driver at the head of the field – such as Shane van Gisbergen, who won a record 21 of 34 races on his way to the 2022 title.

Kostecki at DJR: The Champion and the Ford Icon

All eyes are on Dick Johnson Racing (DJR) – officially known as the Shell V-Power Racing Team – where 2023 champion Brodie Kostecki has moved from Erebus Racing, which he won Bathurst for in 2024 after mysteriously missing the early rounds of the season.

The Ford outfit has a hot new livery but it's been anything but hot in recent weeks – given the ignominy of losing its role as the official Ford homologation team to Triple Eight Race Engineering (Red Bull Ampol Racing).

A new deal with Ford – described by the team as 'long-term' without its specific length revealed – was some way of saving face and reassuring fans the team has the support of the car maker.

After a stunning period between 2017 and 2021 – where it won three drivers and three teams championships (narrowly missing four) as well as a Bathurst 1000 – the team looks poised to recapture some of that glory.

Kostecki's race-winning capability has been described as 'dangerous' by rivals, but can he still be a danger to his opposition in a DJR Ford Mustang?

No doubt, then, both the team – and Kostecki – have a point to prove and will come out swinging even harder in 2025.

Can Red Bull give Chevrolet fans something to cheer for?

Holden fans witnessed a fairytale 2022 Bathurst win when Shane van Gisbergen and co-driver Garth Tander won in the Australian brand's final run at Mount Panorama – do they feel the same about Chevrolet?

It's not quite goodbye, as General Motors is looking for a new homologation team – the team that designs and engineers each brand of V8 Supercar – and intends to race on for at least three more years.

Yet Triple Eight Racing has been the most dominant team in Australia and has won – or been close – to almost every title fight for decades.

Drivers like Craig Lowndes, Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen have won for the team, followed by talent like Broc Feeney and now, last year's winner Will Brown.

The move to Ford has Mustang fans joyous, but Chevrolet fans have lost their ride on the greatest racing juggernaut the sport has ever seen – so will it be cheers or jeers?

The underdogs: Erebus Racing, Anton de Pasquale and Richie Stanaway

There are some points to prove in 2025: Erebus Motorsport once again looking to show its resilience, despite winning Bathurst 2024 and the championship the previous year.

Erebus' drawn-out exit of Kostecki – who, as reigning champion, missed the opening two rounds of 2024 returned to win Bathurst and then signed a deal to depart for Dick Johnson Racing – showed they couldn't convince the skilled steerer to stay on.

They're out to show him what he missed – and prove driver talent belongs at the team.

Same for ex-Erebus driver Anton de Pasquale, who left the squad to replace Scott McLaughlin after a DJR purple patch – at the time, one of the most desired seats in V8 Supercars.

Yet as the team fell out of form, 'ADP' didn't post the results expected, and no thanks to excellent form from his senior DJR team-mate, Will Davison.

De Pasquale joins Team 18 in a Chevrolet Camaro alongside David Reynolds where he'll hope to bounce back after being the next big thing only a few seasons ago.

Richie Stanaway is also out to prove his chops as a full-timer in a PremiAir Racing Camaro, having made a comeback with Grove Racing (Penrite Racing) last season after winning Bathurst with fellow Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen in 2023.

A safe pair of hands as a co-driver, the ex-factory Aston Martin driver and proven endurance race winner is still to show he can muster it week-in, week-out in the brutal championship fight. It may be his last chance.

More passing, varied race strategy with new tyre compounds

A new soft tyre for 2025 from supplier Dunlop should spice things up, designed to last longer and allow drivers to push harder into the race – meaning they may have some grip left to mount a challenge as they head to the chequered flag.

Soft tyres – as opposed to hard – typically allow a car to race faster, but have the downside of wearing out faster, too. The new soft is intended to last longer yet offer enough grip to maintain fast lap times.

Every race in 2024 – apart from when the wet tyres are used in the rain, of course – will use the new soft or a super soft Dunlops which will degrade – 'tyre deg' as drivers call it – faster than the soft.

Will the new tyres make racing more exciting? No-one knows just yet.

What will Craig Lowndes do?

The seven-time Bathurst winner and triple-champion's current contract finishes at the end of 2025, the now 50-year-old having been part of Triple Eight for 21 years – yet the fan-favourite will be invaluable in the Enduro Cup.

Having retired from full-time racing at the end of 2018 – only months after a remarkable Bathurst 1000 win – Lowndes has remained a long-distance driver in the team's Supercheap Auto wildcard entry.

While a new deal hasn't been inked yet, according to Triple Eight team boss – and former team-mate – Jamie Whincup, the team wants him in 2026 and beyond as the team switches back to Ford.

Lowndes – who stunned the sport in 1994 as an upstart 20-year-old in a factory Commodore to become a Holden hero – was part of his own dramatic switch to Ford back in 2001.

James Courtney: Dancing off in to the stars

The 2010 V8 Supercars champion hangs up the helmet at the end of 2025, after 15 race wins – with a best of second at Bathurst in 2007 – across 21 seasons in both Holdens and Fords.

The former Jaguar Formula One test driver was also a Japanese Formula 3 champion, winner in British Formula 3 and British Formula Ford champion.

Racing the Snowy River Caravans Ford Mustang for Blanchard Racing Team (BRT), the 44-year-old hails from Penrith, just down the M4 freeway from Sydney Motorsport Park, making this weekend a great opportunity to see him at home one last time.

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