The FIA Court of Appeal has confirmed all the decisions taken by the Stewards of the Meeting at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps and consequently the final classification.
Ferrari AF Corse had appealed against decision no. 80, that is, the rejection of the previous appeal against the decision (no. 71) to restart the race – interrupted due to the accident of the Cadillac on the ‘Kemmel’ straight – adding 1h44′ to the stopwatch, which with the red flag displayed had in reality continued to run, now approaching the end of the time foreseen for the Belgian race.
“It will be very important for us to understand the interpretation that will be given, in order to have certainties for the future, otherwise it becomes difficult to understand what is happening. We have seen various situations managed differently, as happened a few years ago at Fuji, or at Sebring. The important thing is to be certain of the rules because strategies can change during the race,” explained Antonello Coletta (Head of Ferrari Endurance and Corse Clienti) in response to a question from Motorsport.com before the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
On 3 September, the FIA International Court of Appeal met to hear the parties involved, chaired by Nish Shetty (Singapore) and including Xavier Bone (Spain), Tomas Borec (Slovakia) and Mark Kletter (Austria), with the Maranello team represented by Team Manager, Batti Pregliasco, accompanied by lawyers Nigel Tozzi and Andrea Fioravanti.
#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi
Photo credit: JEP / Motorsport Images
“Ferrari AF Corse was summoned for a hearing at which it confirmed that the protest had been lodged against Decision No. 71 and consequently against the provisional classification. In essence, the Appellant is asking the Court to annul the Decision and replace the Final Classification with a new classification “based on the positions of the cars in the Race at the time of the red flag which continued until the expiry of the 6h race time set out in Appendix 1 of the Race”, it is stated in the FIA document published on Tuesday 10 September.
“The Appellant explains first of all that Decision No. 71 was based on Article 14.3.1 of the 2024 FIA WEC Sporting Regulations which is unequivocal in the sense that the Stewards may modify the established race time, but not exceed the race time provided for in Appendix 1 of the competition, which sets the duration of the race at 6 hours.”
“The Appellant therefore claims that the Stewards extended the race time from 6 hours to 7 hours and 54 minutes and that, in doing so, they breached the WEC regulations.”
“As regards her right to protest, the Appellant submits that she was entitled to protest against Decision No. 71 on the basis of Article 7.2.6 of the WEC Rules and Articles 13.2.1 and 13.7 (a contrario) of the International Sporting Code (the “Code”), whereby, in the Appellant’s submission, the rejection of her protest by Decision No. 80 was wrong.”
“Turning now to the fairness of the decision, the Claimant submits that the timing of the pit stops and the tyres used demonstrate that all the teams were competing on the basis of similar strategies, so that the extension of the Race could not be justified by sporting fairness. The Claimant adds that its cars were 55 seconds ahead of the Porsches travelling in 5th and 6th position before the red flag was raised. The Claimant further submits that only the Porsche cars benefited from the alleged extension of the race, which offered them “on a silver platter” the opportunity to finish in 1st and 2nd place, as they were the only cars to pit immediately before the red flag.”
“This situation has left Ferrari 34 points behind Porsche in the FIA World Hypercar Endurance Championship Manufacturers’ Championship, instead of 4 points if the Stewards had not taken the decision to extend the race.”
“The Complainant finally refers to case ICA-2023-03 Torcelleo Optimum and stresses that the modification or cancellation of the Final Classification has no impact on subsequent races of the Championship, the Stewards’ decision was not issued hastily, the Stewards had time to verify whether they were authorised to extend the race and the concept of sporting fairness cannot be used every time there is a breach of the regulations by the Stewards”.
The Court, after hearing the parties and examining their observations, decided to confirm the Stewards’ decision no. 80, which read: “A decision of the Stewards cannot be subject to protest (Art. 13.2.1 of the FIA International Code)”.
He also ordered the competent Sports Authority to draw, if necessary, the consequences of this sentence.
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