'The cars actually can't cope with it': Veteran Supercars driver claims Gen3 car is too fragile

Team 18 Supercars driver David Reynolds has labelled the decisive Gen3 Supercars too fragile for the harder racing rules that are being introduced for 2025.

In a bid to generate exciting wheel-to-wheel action, Supercars has worked with their driving standards advisor Craig Baird to implement new rules in 2025 that will increase harder action on track.

Reynolds, one of the long-standing drivers in the paddock, claims that one of the major concerns about this introduction may be the structural integrity of the Gen3 car.

READ MORE: 'The decision will be made': Shock Verstappen claim

READ MORE: Chaos erupts as referee lands kick to coach's face

READ MORE: 'All garbage': Great rubbishes Demons' pre-season talk

"The way everyone has been racing lately, the cars actually can't cope with it," Reynolds told Speedcafe.com.

"If they want to bring back the biff and argy-bargy and all that kind of stuff, you've got to re-design the car for it. Because right now if someone drills you in the rear your day is done.

"In Gen2 it wasn't as bad and I feel like Gen1 was better again. The cars have become harder to race because things fall off them more, or parts are more sensitive to touches or whatever the case may be.

"Wheel-to-wheel contact...If you want us to race better, and have those relaxed rules with people drilling each other, you've got the re-design the cars. And I assume everyone would be on board with that, except the people that have to pay for it."

Fragility aside, Reynolds admitted that he is a fan of the move for harder racing.

"It takes it back to the old days of Supercars when I started watching and it created a lot of rivalries and a lot of aggression and competition between the drivers," said Reynolds.

"Personalities helped grow the sport [but] we can't really do that anymore, people want to see a bit of both, clean racing and entertainment."

Three time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen spoke on the matter in relation to his new campaign over in the United States with NASCAR, taking shots at the Gen3 parity debate that continues to dominate Supercars discussion.

"They still have a lot of issues here [in NASCAR]. Like the parity stuff here is 10 times worse than [it] ever was [in Supercars]," said van Gisbergen.

"But would you ever hear about it? No. The teams complain, yes, but they just go and do a better job."

NASCAR and its lower category, Xfinity Series, have a reputation of creating hard fought racing, but have as, recently as Martinsville last weekend, been under fire for having 'seemingly no interest in racing cleanly'.

The Supercars category has made some promising signs in their first races, including an instant classic under lights at Sydney Motorsport Park but concerns from the paddock have been mostly centred around consistency and the cost of crash damage.

Harder racing will see drivers able to fight tooth and nail into corners, but it will require more understanding of the penalties being handed out and across the board consistency from the race stewards, admits Reynolds.

"Even when you know what's going on, you don't know what's going on because every incident is separate and they judge it on its own merit," he said.

"So even if you think you know what happened, their interpretation might be slightly different to yours, so you never really know what's going on."

Supercars will be back on track in Taupo, New Zealand on April 11-13.