Ferrari Defends Controversial Pit Lane Swap On Way to Spa Win

Photo: MPS Agency

Ferrari has defended the controversial pit lane swap between its two factory cars en route to its 1-2 finish in Saturday’s Spa round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

The Prancing Horse continued its unbroken win streak this season as the No. 51 crew of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado prevailed over the sister No. 50 car of Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen and Antonio Fuoco.

Earlier in the race, on lap 80, during a safety car period early in the fourth hour, the two Ferraris — together with almost the whole Hypercar field — entered the pits running nose-to-tail, the No. 50 car of Molina leading the No. 51 of Giovinazzi.

However, as this order didn’t match the order in which Ferrari’s pit stalls were laid out (with No. 51’s stall being closest to the pit exit), Molina performed the highly unorthodox move of pulling into the slow lane, slowing down and allowing Giovinazzi to pass before returning to the fast lane ahead of the No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8.

After a lengthy investigation that was only resolved in the final hour of the race, the No. 50 Ferrari was given only a reprimand.

The relevant stewards’ bulletin, which was only published after the race had finished, noted that Molina’s manoeuvre had the effect of “forcing car 20, which was immediately behind car 51, to brake in order to avoid a collision.”

It continued: “The stewards reviewed video footage and radio communications between the team members which clearly show that the manoeuvre involving cars of the same competitor, was intended to allow car 51 to overtake car 50 within the pit lane, after being unable to do so on the track during the preceding safety car procedure.

“In the opinion of the stewards, this constitutes a misuse of the pit lane, which is not a place where overtaking between competitors should occur.

“Furthermore, the stewards noted that the manoeuvre was carried out in disregard of pit lane safety and without the approval or even the knowledge of race control.”

Ferrari’s race and test team manager Giuliano Salvi said he “disagreed” with the notion that the Italian marque was fortunate to avoid a penalty when asked about the situation by reporters, although he conceded that it had to react to the investigation.

The decision was made to allow the No. 50 car, now in the hands of Fuoco, to repass the No. 51 that had been taken over by Pier Guidi on-track, which also fit in with the strategies of the respective crews at the time.

“We have seen this kind of thing in the past,” contended Salvi. “It is something that we probably need to discuss. There was a reprimand, for sure.

“Of course, when the incident was noted and we were under investigation, we considered the possibility [of switching the cars], because we evaluated that there could have been a possible five-second [penalty].

“We decided to give an advantage [to No. 50] and they were also on a different strategy, so it was pretty natural.

“It was exactly our intention, because when you are under investigation… it was something that [turned out to be] a reprimand but it could have been a penalty.”

Salvi added that it would have been a “disaster” in terms of time loss to service the two 499Ps entering the pit lane in the opposite order to the pit stall layout.

“If you do it in the wrong order, it costs a lot, because you need to put the car in position, so you need to ‘skate’ both cars [on the dolly jacks], and the second car needs to be pulled back, so it would have been a disaster for us,” he said.

Salvi was also asked about a subsequent incident during which the No. 51 car, then driven by Pier Guidi, maintained position over the BMW of Robin Frijns only by straight-lining the Eau Rouge-Radillion complex and gaining an advantage.

Pier Guidi only gave the position back to Frijns after being explicitly instructed to do so by race control, by which time the No. 50 car had escaped at the head of the field to the tune of nine seconds over the No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8.

“When it happened, we didn’t have a clear understanding and we said [to Pier Guidi] stay there, let’s wait, and then we follow immediately what [race director Eduardo] Freitas told us,” said Salvi.

“But we didn’t want to say ‘just do it now’, because it wasn’t clear from our point of view. It was less drama than what it seemed.”

Davey Euwema contributed to this report