THOSE familiar with science fiction movies of the 1980s will be aware of the term ‘Kobayashi Maru’.
In Star Trek II, the Kobayashi Maru test was a training exercise designed as a no-win scenario that, rather than teaching skills or tactics, served as a test of ones character and as a means to determine how a Captain manages themselves and others in an insurmountable situation.
At the moment Supercars find themselves in the middle of such a test; their own no-win scenario.
In confirming the almost inevitable parity adjustment made to the Ford Mustangs, Supercars have entered a critical moment in which it feels almost impossible to find a positive outcome.
There are so many tangents, so many moving pieces to this puzzle that any result in the next round of the championship in Perth will raise the ire of one party or another.
For instance:
If the Fords continue to win, which given the current form of DJR Team Penske and their dynamic duo is entirely likely, then others will claim the parity adjustment didn’t go far enough.
Which fails to take into account that they are clearly the team and drivers doing the best job at the moment.
If the Ford teams get beaten, it is entirely likely they will cry loud that the changes have gone too far and rendered their cars uncompetitive.
Which fails to take into account that Triple Eight will inevitably get on top of the significant suspension changes this year, that the Perth event will be run on a brand-new track surface and under lights, and that other teams like Erebus, Brad Jones Racing and even Kelly Racing are gradually finding their touch.
No matter what the result, one side is going to be happy and the other not.
That’s the problem with making adjustments four rounds into a season when we’ve barely got a read on who is where yet.
Perhaps the bigger issue is that this is even happening at all.
Earlier this year the aero testing between the three competing brands was hailed as the most comprehensive and closest ever, with little to split them.
Yet it has since become very clear that the rather antiquated way of testing the cars has significant flaws and that more advanced methods – CFD and wind tunnels, for starters – must be and are now being pressed into service.
To be fair, this is the first time the whole system has been exposed so significantly because for the most part, there’s been little wrong with the parity of the category since the introduction of the Next-Generation cars.
While the Nissan Altima was only sometimes competitive, and the Mercedes E63 AMG rarely competitive (for reasons that had nothing to do with Parity), there was little between the Volvo, Commodore and Falcon models for the several years they raced together. And all five of them won races at one point or another.
It’s also worth noting that while many said the Volvo was a straight-line Rocketship, it’s interesting to point out that almost all of its performance and success came down to the organic component behind the wheel – which just so happened to be a plucky little Kiwi with a hefty right Jandal.
Sound familiar?
Even while the introduction of the ZB Commodore created controversy and forced others to spend lots of money they didn’t have on carbon fibre panels, in reality its competitive balance with what was already there changed little from the VF.
Mostly, it was the best team and driver combination doing the job time and time again.
However the introduction of the Mustang with the might of Roger Penske and Ford Performance behind it has clearly changed the game.
Lots of international experience went into the development of the current Commodore but surely it was nothing like the kind of resources Ford Performance has to contribute. This is a brand, after all, that in the last few years also churned out a Mustang NASCAR, the Ford GT LeMans car and the GT4 Mustang, among others.
They exploited the rules to the maximum and found the right loopholes to build a weapon and that’s what happens in motorsport, sometimes.
And I bet you any money that they did it with full knowledge of how Supercars would test it to determine the aero numbers. Which is also what happens in motorsport, sometimes.
The Supercars technical department then, was apparently exploited by a major manufacturer – completely and utterly within their own rules – and had to act because the rules state there must be technical parity in the sport.
Even if Ford found a way to get an advantage within those rules, they had to act and so they have.
The rules give them the right to do so and they have so much more information than you or I on which to draw and make an educated decision.
The only possible scenario here is to trust that they are making the right decision for the sport.
The irony is for all of this drama, for all of the discussion and sometimes pretty horrible commentary on social media, the best outcome for everyone next weekend in Perth would unquestionably be Scott McLaughlin going out and smoking the field once again.
He did it last year in the Falcon and most expect him to do it again, even in a trimmed Mustang.
Barbagallo is not an aero circuit and it also just so happens to be a circuit where the young Kiwi is very good.
Should he or Fabian Coulthard win, it might finally be the realisation to everyone else that right now it’s just the pair of Red Mustangs and their drivers doing the business better than anyone else in the paddock.
Because even in a sport with technical parity, motor sport is such a game that the best team and driver combination in the moment will generally win more often than not.
Proving that might just be the best outcome for everyone, so we can get over the Parity chat and get on with the racing.
By the way, while I originally used the Kobayashi Maru analogy as a cute way to compare the current situation to classic pop culture, it may actually be more pertinent an example than even I thought.
You see, the only way anyone in Star Trek lore ever beat the test in question was when a certain James T. Kirk re-programmed the simulation completely; changing the rules of the test itself to allow him to win the scenario.
Perhaps, then, the way out of Supercars’ own no-win scenario is to reprogram their own methodology of determining parity.
Then they too can move past this troubled time and, indeed, Live Long and Prosper.
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