Supercars Darwin: Barry Ryan's frank verdict on fall of Erebus
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Erebus chief executive Barry Ryan has offered a frank reflection on a crippling 18 months that has seen his title-winning team slip to last in the Supercars standings.
After a fairytale start to the Gen3 era, which saw Erebus win both the drivers' and teams' titles in 2023, the squad has endured a string of well-publicised internal struggles.
Will Brown defected to Triple Eight at the end of 2023, while reigning champion Brodie Kostecki missed the start of the 2024 season while in dispute with the team, which coincided with big name sponsors such as Coca-Cola walking away.
Kostecki would later return and win the Bathurst 1000, however left to Dick Johnson Racing at the end of last season – along with both Erebus race engineers George Commins and Tom Moore.
Will Brown left Erebus at the end of 2023. Picture: Brendan Radke
Brodie Kostecki was another high-profile departure.
Team principal Brad Tremain also left the squad at the end of 2024 with plans to pursue an opportunity in IndyCar in the US.
That has prompted a significant, and ongoing, internal rebuild, highlighted by Ryan himself needing to take the race engineer role on Jack Le Brocq's car.
It's been tough going for Le Brocq and rookie teammate Cooper Murray, too, with Erebus slumping to last in the teams' standings ahead of this weekend's Darwin Triple Crown.
'There's no hiding behind it; the last 18 months have been really hard on our team. Really hard,' said Ryan at Hidden Valley on Friday.
'Losing key people … our last rebuild was 2021 and we got Brodie and Will and no one believed, really, in that. And we won a championship two years later, and we won Bathurst the year after.
'We've gone back to where we were [in 2021].
'It's hard on the team. To replace people like George, Tom and Brodie is really hard. Brad Tremain is going to kick goals in America. That's four key people out of the team, it's really tough to replace that.
'It's going to take time. We can't hide behind that. I can only do so much and the boys that I've had there for six, seven years can only do so much.
'Unfortunately I'm still race engineering, and I say that because I shouldn't be. I should be running the business. But until we can get the right person to do that role; we're trying to self-promote from within, we're trying to find an engineer we can just put in and be really successful.
Cooper Murray was 11th in the second practice session in Darwin.
'It's a balancing act and I can't say I'm really enjoying it. We got to a point where we were beating Triple Eight and we wanted to be that team that was the best year in, year out.
'Massive respect to Roland Dane for what he did for that whole time he was there, and what they're still doing. We got there and we just couldn't keep the momentum.
'No matter what everyone thinks the reason is why. We just couldn't keep that momentum that teams like that can do.
'Anyway, it's a lesson learned, this whole situation. We'll try not to go through it again.
'We'll get there again. We're confident in our team. We've got a great bunch of loyal staff that want to stay on and want to see us get there again and win championships and Bathursts.
'We're still going to go to Bathurst trying to win there this year. We'll have the belief and we'll have the drivers than can do it.'
Erebus showed signs of improvement on track on Friday, with Murray 11th in the second practice session and Le Brocq in 19th as Andre Heimgartner led the way for Brad Jones Racing ahead of Ryan Wood and Will Brown.
This story was written by Speedcafe
Originally published as Supercars Darwin: Barry Ryan's frank verdict on fall of Erebus
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