Do the Shell Team Have Red Bull Rattled?

The 2017 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship might be only one round in, but the mind games have already begun.

Ford's Scott McLaughlin has boldly declared they're "in the heads" of the usually dominant Red Bull Holden garage.

The Shell V-Power star has returned fire after Jamie Whincup claimed the DJR Team Penske (Shell) squad now have "all of Triple Eight's data, ever."

The comments were made after the Shell Falcons scored big wins at the non-championship Coates Hire Supercar Challenge at Albert Park last weekend.

Coincidentally the Ford's uptick in performance came after tech honcho Ludo Lacroix defected from Triple Eight to work on McLaughlin's #17.

But the Kiwi driver says the key recruit isn't the only reason they're now running at the front.

“He’s (Lacroix) not the ultimate key,” McLaughlin spilled to Fox Sports News.

“But at the end of the day, we’ve got some of their secrets… some of them, we’ve probably got most of them, so that’s quite a good thing."

Whether he's right or wrong may well be known by next weekend's round at Symmons Plains Raceway in Tasmania.

Triple Eight cars have been winning every race there since 2014.

But if it's a DJR Team Penske car topping the podium next Sunday, expect another new chapter to be written in this increasingly fiery war of words.