The International Court of Appeal rejected Ferrari’s attempt to revise the result of the World Endurance Championship’s Six Hours of Spa.
The stewards of the May event dismissed Ferrari’s original protest against their decision to resume the interrupted race for its full remaining duration. In their explanation, they pointed out decisions of the stewards are not subject to appeal.Following submissions in a hearing today from Ferrari, its rivals JOTA Porsche and Penske Porsche, and the FIA, the ICA upheld the stewards’ verdict that the International Sporting Code does not allow protests against decisions of the stewards.
Ferrari’s original protest was brought “against the decision of the stewards number 71 and against the provisional classification.” Document 71 stated the race would be resumed for one hour and 44 minutes following its suspension of almost two hours for barrier repairs following a crash.
In its conclusions the court noted: “The appellant confirmed before the stewards that ‘the protest is [lodged] against the decision of the stewards number 71 and consequently against the provisional classification.”
“After having carefully reviewed articles 13.2.1 and 13.7 of the code, the court finds that a decision of the stewards cannot be protested.”
Ferrari argued that the extension of the race meant it ran to a duration of seven hours and 44 minutes, and that its cars were disadvantaged because the chequered flag did not fall at the six-hour mark, when they were in a more competitive position.
In its defence, the FIA representatives stated that “when a race is interrupted, the red flag period cannot be considered as part of the race duration” and that “as no official report indicates anything more than a six hours duration of the race, the appellant cannot claim that the race lasted seven hours and 44 minutes.” It also pointed out the WEC stewards had been given the power to amend the race time following the 2013 Fuji round which was badly affected by rain and ran entirely behind the Safety Car.
The hearing was relocated from Paris to Geneva to avoid a clash with the Paralympic Games. WEC race director Eduardo Freitas attended via videoconference.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
World Endurance Championship
- McLaren finally confirms it will enter the World Endurance Championship in 2027
- How to watch the IndyCar and WEC season-openers this weekend
- Ford’s return to boost top Le Mans and WEC classes to 10 manufacturers
- Lotterer, Estre and Vanthoor clinch WEC drivers’ title, Toyota win constructors’
- Penske Porsche poised to clinch title after winning incident-packed Fuji Six Hours
MichaelN
11th September 2024, 9:07
This is actually very common in endurance racing.
The rules should probably be amended to make it clearer when time does, and when it does not, continue to run. Where is the limit, is it only races of 12 hours or more? All endurance races? Only 24 hour races?
stefano (@alfa145)
11th September 2024, 13:41
I’m too lazy to look it up but one would imagine such basic rules were written clearly on page 1 or 2 of the rulebook
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
11th September 2024, 23:14
@alfa145 Not in WEC. In fact, there’s no reason to believe it’s on any page of the regulations.
In fact, red flags are counted as part of the race time in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which is a WEC round. The FIA submission is therefore, but the “stewards’ decisions cannot be protested” means it can’t get the rejection that needed to happen.
The precedent here is that the FIA has established that it can break any regulation it likes, without oversight from appeals courts, as long as it’s covered by a stewarding decision. This means it cannot be depended upon to provide a sport – or even to follow safety regulations that might get covered up by “stewarding decisions”.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
11th September 2024, 23:15
* – The FIA submission is therefore wrong.
RandomMallard
12th September 2024, 0:07
@alianora-la-canta First of all, Le Mans has never been red flagged (and this appears to be a precedent that the FIA/ACO are very keen to uphold), so in theory it’s never been tested as to whether the time under RF would count.
Also, the WEC regulations, as noted in the article, do allow the stewards to alter the race time, in article 14.3.1:
This can be interpreted (and in this case, has been) to mean that they can change the race clock, as long as the total time the race is actually running (i.e. not under red flag) doesn’t exceed (in this case) 6 hours. As noted by Jota in their contribution, the stewards “did not
extend the effective duration of the Race but only “altered the hours between which the 6 hours race would take place.””
And finally, the decision notes that the regulations aren’t automatically covered up by Stewards’ decisions, in fact there were 3 ways the decision could have been overturned: a clerical correction, a right of review request, or an appeal of the decision. Ferrari didn’t invoke any of these, instead they protested the decision, which is not permitted because it would lead to the stewards reviewing their own decision, when it should instead be reviewed by another party (e.g. a right of review board).
To be honest, reading the FIA report, it looks like Ferrari made a pig’s ear of the situation. They didn’t invoke the right principles, plus, their original request (take the result from 96 laps) would have violated a separate regulation based on lap countback (it would have been 95 laps), and therefore their protest would also be invalid for that reason. As a result, their protest and later appeal have been rejected. Had they initially requested a right of review or appeal, the end result might have been different.