The Kiwi wrapped up a third Supercars title on the streets of Surfers Paradise today, his points lead now insurmountable with three races left.
His second consecutive title has come from a record-breaking season that has now seen him win 20 of the 31 races so far.
It has also come during a year where van Gisbergen has spread his wings outside Supercars. He has been a regular in the Australian Rally Championship and was a podium finisher in the WRC2 class at Rally New Zealand last month.
He also made a debut appearance at Le Mans in a GTE car back in May and is known to be in talks for a NASCAR cameo with Trackhouse Racing.
When pressed on his future after sealing the title, van Gisbergen said his plan is to continue racing Supercars full-time.
However, he also said he won’t commit to a new deal beyond his current agreement, which is thought to run until the end of 2023, until he has raced the new Gen3 cars.
“[My future] depends on Gen3, probably,” said van Gisbergen.
“I would like to say here. If I stay in Supercars, I’ll definitely stay with Triple Eight. I love the team. And we have started talking about a new deal.
“But maybe I’d like to start next year and see what the racing is like.
“The [Gen3] car has potential, but I’d like to race people as well. The race [today] was probably pretty stale. When you follow someone you can hardly follow with the aero stuff.
“Let’s see. Hopefully next year it’s a better race car. I’d love to stay in Supercars, it’s close to home.”
Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering
Photo by: Mark Horsburgh, Edge Photographics
Supercars will introduce the Gen3 rules next season, with Ford Mustangs and Chevrolet Camaros that feature significantly less downforce than the current Gen2 cars.
The new cars will also feature more control parts than ever, including control front uprights for the first time.
Van Gisbergen’s Triple Eight team has been tasked by Supercars to undertake the majority of the design and development of the control parts of the car, while the team is also the homologation team for General Motors.
When asked by Autosport to clarify what he wants from the Gen3 car, van Gisbergen said he’d like better raceability and the preservation of some level of technical freedom.
“I just want it to be fun. And a good car to drive,” he said. “At the start of the year they let us drive [the prototype] a bit but then I haven’t driven it since [the Tasmania SuperSprint] for some reason. They are giving it to other people.
“I just hope it is a good race car, a fun race car, for everyone. And we still have some room to develop it and change it around.
“We don’t want it to be like Porsche [Carrera] Cup where they are all the same speed and boring racing. It sounds very stock at the moment.
“Maybe we’ll have a lot of things we can change on the car. At the moment you can see a Walkinshaw car, you can see a Grove car, a DJR car. You can see the differences when you’re driving.
“I just hope that we’re not locked in next year and everyone is the same and it makes the racing stale.
“Everything they say about it is good, they are talking it up, all the engineers. And I trust them. But we’ll see at the first race what it is really like.”
Keyword: Van Gisbergen not ready to commit to Supercars future