Will Brown’s Supercars season had hit a rough patch. A run of poor results, combined with the revelation that an undersized engine restrictor had been hampering the #888 Red Bull Ampol Ford, put the 2024 champion under external pressure heading into Queensland Raceway. But what followed was a win, a pole position, and three podiums across the Ipswich weekend.
Few people watch Brown work as closely as enduro co-driver Scott Pye, who was trackside at Queensland Raceway and says the noise outside the garage was far louder than anything happening within it.
“The external conversation was louder than the internal one at Triple Eight, that’s for sure,” Pye told Supercars.com. He was clear that the team remained focused on finding a mechanical solution rather than questioning their driver. From his perspective, the car’s performance issues were fairly apparent, and the team worked relentlessly to resolve them.
Pye was loud and clear about Brown’s professionalism through the slump, and rather than deflecting blame onto the car, Brown kept his head down and worked with the team. “He never threw his toys out of the cot,” Pye said. “Internally, no one doubted Will’s ability. He is a champion.” Drivers at this level are so closely matched that car performance often determines where they appear in the results, not raw talent. “Drivers don’t forget how to drive,” he said.
Brown himself revealed that he pushed to make the restrictor issue public, knowing it would intensify scrutiny on him for the Ipswich weekend. His reasoning was straightforward, as he felt the explanation was owed to the public, and that transparency would ultimately serve him better than silence.
“I battled with it my final year in ’23,” Pye admitted, describing the difficulty of protecting a team’s image publicly while absorbing criticism privately. He argued that honesty, even when uncomfortable, is preferable to a culture of deflection.
Brown’s conduct in front of the broadcast cameras during his difficult run also drew praise from Pye. “Asking the question is horrible,” Pye said of post-session broadcast interviews. “It’s the worst feeling to go up to a driver after their worst moment.” He credited Brown for respecting that everyone involved has a job to do.
Pye and Brown will be together again in the #888 Red Bull Ampol Mustang for the endurance rounds at The Bend and Bathurst in the coming weeks. After Queensland Raceway, Brown is back in championship realm, and the partnership that won the 2024 Sandown 500 together will have every reason to be confident heading into the enduros.
