A position swap by Ferrari in the pit lane causes controversy at the WEC race in Spa: Race director Salvi defends the controversial move
Ferrari has defended the controversial maneuver during the pit stop of its two factory teams, which gave the manufacturer a double victory in the Hypercar class of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) at the 6-hour race in Spa.
The team thus continued its winning streak in the current season. The number 51 car with Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi, and James Calado prevailed on Saturday against its sister crew in the number 50 car, consisting of Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen, and Antonio Fuoco.
The incident occurred in the fourth hour of the race during a safety car phase. On lap 80, almost all of the Hypercars came into the pits at the same time. The two Ferraris drove into the pit lane bumper to bumper, with Molina’s 51 car.
Why Ferrari swapped positions
However, as the pit boxes of the two Ferraris were positioned so that the 50 Ferrari was given only a warning.
Ferrari Hypercar 50 under investigation for this overtake in the PIT LANE?!
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In the statement released by the stewards after the race, it was stated that the maneuver forced the BMW behind the 51 to brake to avoid a collision. The stewards made it clear that this was a deliberate action to allow an overtaking maneuver in the pit lane between the two Ferraris after such a maneuver had not been possible on the track.
Race director Salvi sees no problem
“In the opinion of the stewards, this constitutes an abuse of the pit lane, which is not intended for overtaking maneuvers,” the statement said. “Furthermore, the action was carried out without the consent or even the knowledge of the race director and in disregard of safety regulations.”
Nevertheless, it remained a warning, which surprised some observers. However, Ferrari’s race director Giuliano Salvi rejected the assessment that his team had gotten off lightly. “I don’t agree with that,” Salvi said, but admitted that they had to deal intensively with the ongoing proceedings.
Ultimately, Ferrari decided to reverse the order on the track later on: Fuoco in the 51 – a move that, according to Salvi, was also in line with the respective strategy. “There have been similar situations in the past. It’s definitely something that needs to be discussed,” he explained.
Wrong order would have “massively set back” Ferrari
“When the incident was investigated, we considered a possible penalty – maybe five seconds. So we reacted and gave 50 car had already pulled away from the field with a nine-second lead.
“When that happened, we didn’t have a clear assessment at first. So we told Pier Guidi, ‘Stay where you are, we’ll wait.’ Then we immediately followed the instructions from Eduardo Freitas [race director],” said Salvi. ‘From our point of view, it seemed less dramatic than it appeared from the outside.’
