'My feet are on fire': reigning Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen calls for changes to new cars after opening day of Newcastle 500

After the opening day of the Newcastle 500 on Friday, and three practice sessions, van Gisbergen called on the category's officials to allow alterations before the season's opening race on Saturday.

The new cars, which are being raced for the first time this weekend, have smaller cabins and van Gisbergen - one of the taller drivers on the grid - said he needed further protection around his legs.

"I'm struggling in the car, it's so, so hot," he said.

"It's the hottest car I've driven in a long time. They made us take the heat stuff out last night that we put in, and apparently it's going back in tonight.

"If I wiggle my toes, I'm touching the firewall. Last year they extended that cabin bit, and that's ... further into the engine bay now.

"It's crazy hot, my feet are on fire. Hopefully they let us do some things to fix it."

The three-time champion said more could be done.

"Put heat-wrapping and shielding on there," he said.

"I understand why a lot of stuff is controlled, but some of it is a bit overboard."

The new cars, which have been designed to improve competition, were finally unveiled in front of race fans during the three 45-minute practice sessions.

Brodie Kostecki, of Coca-Cola Racing by Erebus, emerged as the fastest driver.

The 25-year-old, in his third year as a full-time Supercars driver, drove the quickest lap of the day late in the third and final session, clocking a 1:11.406.

"It's definitely good to end the day the fastest ... but points don't pay today," Kostecki said.

"We'll have qualifying up tomorrow and it's good to have something to build off.

"I've felt pretty confident since I've done the test days with the team. The team has put in a monumental effort in the off-season. The attention to detail with the team has raised quite a bit."

Van Gisbergen (1:11.462) and Chaz Mostert (1:11.482) were both less than a tenth-of-a-second behind Kostecki.

Supercars veteran Tim Slade was fourth quickest. The PremiAir Racing driver, who will make his 400th career race start this weekend, clocked a 1:11.564.

Kostecki said the new cars were a different beast but he felt comfortable from the first time behind the wheel.

"It's definitely a lot different," Kostecki said.

"You've really definitely got to throw everything out the window from what you past knew.

"[But] first few laps I jumped in this thing, I sort of just felt like it was natural to me. I'm really excited for tomorrow and we'll see how we go."

Friday marked the first Supercars event day without the iconic Holden brand but the first with the Chevrolet Camaro involved.

The pre-season concerns of parity between the Camaro and Ford Mustang didn't appear an issue on day one.

There were five Camaros and five Mustangs in the top ten of the final practice session.

The new cars are wider than their predecessors and drivers have found them harder to manoeuvre around the tight Newcastle street circuit.

Supercars legend turned commentator Mark Skaife repeatedly described them as "very difficult to drive".

The teething issues were perhaps most evident in the number of mistakes drivers made during practice, particularly at turn two at the top of Watt Street where there is room to overrun the corner.

"It's a corner where ... [it's] very bumpy, so a lot of rear [brake] locking and people at some point have to decide if they are going to try and make the corner or go straight ahead," Brad Jones Racing driver Andre Heimgartner said.

"Every time ... it's not clear whether you're going too fast or not fast enough. You see some people trying to make it, having big moments, and other people giving up and just going straight.

"It's just one of those corners where you need to have that confidence that the car will actually stick, and that will only come with time."

Heimgartner was the quickest at a recent test day at Sydney Motorsport Park and he followed it up to post the fastest lap in session one.

Mostert said it would be a "tough slog" on Saturday.

"I don't know how long the car is going to keep its competitive edge for," he said. "A lot of us haven't, probably, done over 20 laps on a set of tyres in one go. We're going into tomorrow in no-man's land. We've definitely got a bigger beast that we've got to try and handle."

Scoring a decent position on the starting grid has generally proved essential at Newcastle due to the limited passing opportunities.

Qualifying at 11.15am will be followed by a shootout at 12.35pm for the 10 quickest drivers. The 95-lap race is due to start at 3.20pm.

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