Ferrari at Bahrain: penalty but no advantage

WECHyperCar

Nov 4

James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi sharing the Ferrari 499P #51 initially finished second the 8 Hours of Bahrain but was handed a 4:55 minutes penalty for exceeding its allocation of 26 tires across qualifying and the race. Ferrari’s official statement acknowledge the mistake and implies the #51 car didn’t gain any advantage.

The penalty

This is the official decision #40 handing a 4’ 55” penalty to Ferrari #51.

Source FIA WEC noticeboard: Decision #40.

Ferrari official statement

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Bahrain. James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi sharing the Ferrari 499P #51.

“Following the race, the Stewards issued Decision No. 40, penalising car number 51 and relegating it to 14th position. According to the document, the car used 28 tyres rather than the 26 permitted for Qualifying and the Race.
In fact, the team respected the 26-tyre limit. However, because of a mistake, during the race they used the tyres fitted to the car for the grid formation instead of those scrubbed during qualifying and intended for the race.
These two tyres were not considered as part of the contingent allocated by the team, hence the Stewards' decision.” Source: Ferrari

Official cars’ race

The 499P #51 led the race for over six hours. Towards the end, in a heated contest for the podium, the #51 Ferrari made an early last pit stop and climbed to second position amid the melee following the last round of stops.

The race was less fortunate for the drivers of the 499P #50. Molina suffered a contact at the start, which damaged the front flicks, slowing his pace and requiring a nose change at the first pit stop. Nielsen and Fuoco made up ground to reach the top five, but another collision an hour before the finish resulted in a left rear puncture, costing positions and forcing an early stop to change tyres.

Independant team

The yellow and red #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P piloted by Yifei Ye, Robert Shwartzman, and Robert Kubica ended the 8 hours of Bahrain in P8 overall and P2 of the Hypercar Teams, securing second place in the independent team’s standings.