GTWC | Ferrari, unacceptable epilogue: “They took away a dream from us”

One might say that it is fortunate that Ferrari will no longer have endurance races at Spa-Francorchamps in the 2024 season.

The 24 Hours of the Centenary valid as a round of GT World Challenge Europe and Intercontinental GT Challenge ends with an epilogue similar to what was seen at the 6h of the FIA ​​WEC in May, obviously with very different situations when compared, but with the gist that does not change.

That is, a victory now within reach, if not completely within reach, which fades to the best just a few minutes from the end. We have already talked a lot about the case of the 499P in the Hypercar World Championship, but what we saw on the Ardennes track 45′ from the end of a crazy race, to say the least, is something totally new.

Having grabbed the lead with great performances by Alessandro Pier Guidi, Alessio Rovera and Davide Rigon, the 296 GT3 #51 ran into an absurd situation that literally ruined everything good that the AF Corse-Francorchamps Motors standard-bearers had done up to that point.

Having entered the pit lane for the last refueling, Pier Guidi surprisingly found the #19 Lamborghini stopped in front having broken down, with poor Hugo Cook unable to restart the vehicle, something that had already happened to him in the previous stop.

The entrance to the pit lane at Spa is blind and the road is very narrow, delimited by two high walls that block the ‘preventive’ view of those who have to return for the pit stop, so the Piedmontese could do nothing but brake and remain astonished to see that he could not continue.

“Unfortunately, when I entered the pit lane and went around the bend, I found the Lamborghini already stopped in front of me,” explained Pier Guidi at the end of the race with a visibly and rightly very annoyed face, speaking to the journalists present, including Motorsport.com.

“There wasn’t much to do or think about at that moment, I looked for a space to pass, but there wasn’t one because she was right in the middle of the lane, with an organization van also coming in reverse to tow her away.”

The anger not only of the boy from Tortona, but of the entire Prancing Horse team stems from the failure of the race direction to communicate that at that moment the pit lane was impassable and that it should have been closed.

A fact that all the representatives of Maranello have underlined and defined as unacceptable at these levels of competition, especially when the stakes are of a certain weight and which, objectively, has left everyone stunned.

“If we had entered together, I would have at least tried to push her if she had stopped in front of me, but that wasn’t the case.”

“I asked the pit crew if they had seen a message warning of this situation on the screens, but unfortunately no one had reported it from Race Direction.”

“If I had known the pit lane was blocked, I would have stayed out and done another lap, even if I was a bit tight on the time I think I would have made it.”

“We probably could have won without any problems, but with the ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ we know we’re not going anywhere. And today we lost the match, that’s all.”

With the Lamborghini removed, Pier Guidi found himself with over 40″ lost and even in fifth position, fighting tooth and nail to overtake those in front of him until he managed to bring home at least a second place, which however has a rather bitter taste if we consider the general picture.

“It’s really difficult to say anything, the performance was there and we did a fantastic job between AF Corse and Ferrari, we always stayed out of trouble in difficult conditions and it’s strange to have to comment on a defeat in a race like this.”

“It’s racing and certain things can happen, unfortunately there’s nothing we can do about it. We’ll just have to try again next time.”

Rovera and Rigon also came to speak with the same justified discouraged mood, and could not help but take note of what had happened, if nothing else, congratulating themselves on the good performance of a 296 GT3 strong in all conditions seen over the course of the 24 hours.

“The performance was really good both in the dry and in the wet, which makes it even more difficult to accept a result like this. It was really sad to look at the faces of all the team members and the Ferrari drivers in the garage.”

“Also, if you think about how difficult it is to get to that point, one step away from victory in such a complex race, with so many cars at the start and in such different conditions over the course of 24 hours, it’s unimaginable; you don’t know if it will ever happen again. We need to turn the page immediately and focus on the commitments of the next few weeks.”

#51 AF Corse – Francorchamps Ferrari 296 GT3: Alessandro Pier Guidi, Davide Rigon, Alessio Rovera

Photo by: Eric Le Galliot

The Venetian added: “It’s a dream shattered just when we were very close to making it come true. We did everything very well together with the AF Corse team, Ferrari, Alessio and Alessandro, we focused so much on bringing home this result and seeing it slip away in this way is very hard to digest”.

“The nice thing to highlight is the performance of the car, the absence of errors and penalties in such a difficult race, so we can look to the future with confidence.”

The words of the Head of Ferrari Endurance and Corse Clienti, Antonello Coletta, were also very harsh: “Today a dream was taken away from us, because the victory in the two Centenary editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Spa was in our hands and what we witnessed is truly incredible”.

“There are no words to describe the bitterness of having seen a surreal episode cancel out a success that we had deserved on the track, both for the way in which the crew of #51 conducted the race and for the work done by the team. The podium in the PRO and Bronze classes is little consolation.”