'Out of control': Jamie Whincup fumes at Supercars ruling allowing 'illegal' cars to race

Supercars legend and Triple Eight boss Jamie Whincup has accused the Walkinshaw team of running two "illegal" cars in the opening races of the Supercars Championship.

Whincup made the stunning claims in a clip posted to social media on Thursday morning by the Apex Hunters United podcast.

In the 90-second clip, Whincup accused the Walkinshaw team of using TIG welds when they built their new-for-2026 Toyota Supras, when the regulations require teams to use MIG welds.

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"The rules clearly state you cannot TIG weld the chassis," Whincup said.

"Walkinshaw TIG welded both their chassis up. Supercars go 'Gee whiz, OK, what are we going to do here? If you just MIG over the top, it's going to be OK'.

"I said 'hey, guys, that's not on. They need to throw them in the bin and start again'.

"I said 'I can't tell them to do that, all I can do is appeal the result', so after the first race I'll say I think the car's not legit and go from there.

"So then Supercars issued a letter to say we're going to allow these two cars indefinitely but nobody else can do what they did, so from here on in you've all got to MIG weld.

"It's out of control."

The suggestion is Supercars allowed Walkinshaw, who are effectively the factory Toyota team in the sport, to run the illegal cars to avoid any potential embarrassment for the Japanese brand that would have come from missing the Sydney event.

The two cars are one again in action this weekend on the Australian F1 Grand Prix undercard.

The podcast, hosted by Triple Eight co-driver Scott Pye and well-known paddock figure Elliot Barbour, was recorded on Wednesday night. The full episode will be released next week.

While using MIG welds is generally a faster process, TIG welds offer a finer finish. If done correctly, they are marginally lighter and make a stiffer chassis - both of which are considered performance advantages in motorsport.

"If you're a Kai Allen fan, or a Rylan Gray fan or a Broc Feeney fan, and you get beaten by a Walkinshaw car this weekend, you've got every right to be pissed off because they're not running the same chassis as what we are," Whincup continued.

"It needs to be addressed. It can't continue like that. They can't be running these, what I regard as an illegal car. They're legal because Supercars say they are, but I don't accept that. We need to get that changed as soon as we can.

"There's only five authorised chassis builders for this reason - so you don't have any randos making mistakes. So they're one of the five.

"They made an error, I think it's strategic, hoping Supercars would go 'Oh, don't worry about it', which they did.

"So they're probably laughing all the way to the bank."

There is no suggestion the other three Supras run by Brad Jones Racing are illegal.

It's not the first time welding techniques involving Walkinshaw have caused paddock furore in Supercars. In late 2022, they were among the first to build their chassis for the Gen3 cars. They TIG welded two cars, before rules later mandated MIG welds. The team was made to MIG weld over the top of the TIG welds, which negated, with interest, the weight advantage of the TIG welds, but debate still remains if the extra rigidity it gives is also reduced.

Walkinshaw declined an interview opportunity with Wide World of Sports, but team boss Ryan Walkinshaw told V8 Sleuth he believed those were the two chassis Whincup was referring to.

"We think Jamie might be a bit confused here," he said.

"Because we think he's referring to the TIG versus MIG debate that we had at the start of Gen3, where we initially TIG'd our first chassis we built, because welding requirements were yet to be confirmed.

"Supercars allowed us to do it and then they changed the rules after the first chassis was built, and the fix was to MIG over those welds in order to come up with a solution that didn't require us to build a whole new chassis at huge cost.

"Contrary to what Jamie says, this is actually a disadvantage, not an advantage, because it actually added a lot of weight to the chassis which obviously we didn't want, and we couldn't pull any weight out of another part of the car because they are controlled chassis everywhere else."

Those race cars, built as Ford Mustangs, have now been retired by the team.

"Our two new chassis we currently have are completely approved and certified by Supercars, including our spare chassis, all of which have been at the technical centre where they all passed all their twist tests, et cetera, and have been signed off by Supercars and approved," he added.

"We aren't here to throw mud at other teams. If Jamie wants to do that, that's his choice, but we're going to do our talking on the track."

Whincup refused the suggestion he was confused, declaring to Wide World of Sports he believed the two cars on the grid at Albert Park are illegal.

Supercars has been contacted for comment.