Steptoe and Son Minor Offence The Bahrain race had everything organisers of the FIA GT Championship could ask for: A new team winning the race overall; a championship decider between no fewer than seven drivers, drama from the start as two of those championship contenders retired with gearbox failure; the other three battling out a tense strategic race to the flag. The chequered flag flew, Gabriele Gardel was champion and then…nothing. Was the Swiss champion or not? No information. No confirmation. Nothing. The next day it turns out that, despite reaching the finishing line, Gardel’s co- driver Pedro Lamy had run out of fuel having completed a two-stop strategy. It was a risk that initially appeared to have paid off, but in post race scrutineering, the team was found not to have the required three litres of fuel left in the tank. Regulations are regulations, and Larbre team manager Jack Leconte knows them as well as anyone, but surely the essence of the championship is that the race lasts for 500km, or three hours whichever comes first, and that is just what the Ferrari did. If the scrutineers want a fuel sample, take it from the fuel tank in the garage – that was the stuff that went into the car; that is the stuff they would find in it at the end. That way, the teams can afford to take great risks in pursuit of glory. Surely that is what motor racing is all about? These days we do not play so much with the lives of the drivers, thankfully, but strategy has always been at the heart of endurance sport. On Friday in Bahrain, Leconte rolled the dice and won. Both Gardel at the end of his second stint, and Lamy at the end of the race, were marginal on fuel. So what? They did the three hours, they had done enough to win the title. It’s in the fine print........ Races and championships should not be decided by men with clipboards who drink coffee throughout the race – they should be won or lost in the pits, on the track and by the men who pedal these 600bhp machines. I had a ride with Andy Priaulx around Hockenheim a few weeks ago in his 275bhp World Touring Car. Now, that was not particularly quick, but the amount of slip sliding going on underneath us was notable and Priaulx explained afterwards that the BMW drivers were running with around 10 per cent of drift at nearly all times. Imagine braking from 140mph into a hairpin with the car sliding and slithering, having hit your braking point spot on, Alfas, BMWs, Seats and Chevrolets all around you trying to pass you, prepared to go through you in the case of some, a World Championship at stake. You execute this corner, and every other, perfectly, you take the flag, bring the car home, and voila! The place is taken away because you don’t satisfy the pen-pushers. There have been several instances over the past few years where the result has been decided in the scrutineering bay. In 2003, when the Ferrari 575 won at Estoril, on its championship debut the car failed its airbox test according to some in the pressroom, yet the result was allowed to stand. When Fabrizio Gollin and Luca Capellari’s 550 Maranello failed its test in Enna in 2003, they were kicked out. The team, BMS Scuderia Italia, claimed that the scrutineers had broken the airbox while conducting the test but that was not good enough. Others have claimed accident damage caused a weakening of the material which later collapsed under scrutiny. This year, the GL PK team raced for 24 hours at Spa, finished, and were then thrown out because the data logging box was not connected. They had been let off such an indiscretion when they won at Imola, and second time they were out, but did it not occur to anyone to check the car before the race. Or during it, when it was in the pits under repair? There are other ways of doing this than waiting to the last minute, letting all the work be completed, and then waving your wand over the results sheets. The amended results that regularly come cause those who are filing on deadline to bang their heads off desks in frustration; sometimes the amendments do not come out for several hours and media who were struggling to take interest in the sport turned their backs on it with such regular re-writes. Coach and Horses Of course, there are some who attempt the illegal and flagrantly break the rules in which case I rather like the idea put forward a few weeks ago of how NASCAR allegedly handles these situations; if you win a race and your car is found to be ‘properly’ illegal (i.e you have turned up with a deliberately manufactured illegality), the race result stands. However, you are required to carry a rear wing the size of a barn door (or some similar handicap) for the next four, five or six races, and you won’t stand a chance of winning any of them. Sorry pal, the crowd saw the race, they saw you win, but you are going to have to wait a long time to do it again, we have our eye on you! Lamy drove several exceptional races this year in the Ferrari and the major regret I have of the season is that, if Larbre is successful in its appeal, he will not be champion with Gardel. Two races with the Aston Martin Racing team, including victory at Silverstone, meant that the two partners were separated in the point standings and Lamy was not eligible for points when he drove for the factory team. In Dubai, he and Gardel drove an extraordinary race from the back of the field to the front, running out of fuel on the way, yet victory was theirs. If ever there had been a champion drive, that was it, and his rivals accepted that fact. Instead, the drivers’ title has provisionally gone to Michael Bartels and Timo Scheider in the Vitaphone Maserati team which also claimed the team’s title. On the podium at seven out of 11 races, including two wins, one of which was at the Spa 24 Hours kept them in the hunt. As much as that record points towards the two being deserving champions, and anyone who drives such a dominant race at Spa in the awful conditions does deserve the credit, neither ever put in a performance like Lamy at Dubai. For instance, at Oschersleben, instead of taking time to change a battery, Bartels tried to bump-start his car exiting the pit lane when electrical power was low, failed, and rolled to a rather pathetic halt at pit exit. They bounced back with two second places, and then finished fourth in Bahrain after making double the number of pit stops to the Larbre car, but it is not really the same, is it? |
Andrew Cotton |
True Grit I went to the cinema on Friday, to see a John Wayne movie. I always liked the cowboy films, the goodies and baddies, but there was something not quite right with this production. True to legend Wayne shot all the gangsters in Dead Man’s Gulch, mounted his horse to ride into the sunset…then one of his victims rose on one elbow, levelled his pistol and shot Wayne through the heart. Bang. Dead. Hero lying in the dust. Women were leaving the cinema in tears, men heading for the nearest bar. Surely a good movie shouldn’t end like this? Surely a good motor race shouldn’t end with the champion elect lying in the dust, either? What happened in Bahrain on Friday afternoon was a travesty of the sport, an insult to all the top drivers and all the spectators who went home having witnessed a race, approved the result and applauded a champion, Gabriele Gardel. Courtroom Drama I have nothing against Maserati drivers, nice guys all. I would have been perfectly happy if Michael Bartels and Timo Scheider had shared the FIA GT Championship for Drivers, fairly won according to the outcome of the race. But they did not. No race result, never mind a championship, should be settled in a courtroom, weeks or months after the final event. There is something inherently wrong in the system that allows this to happen. All cars are, after all, scrutineered before going on the track for the first practice. Certain checks, like weighing and air box testing, are performed during practice and qualifying. If a team deliberately cheated prior to the race, or during the race, say with a leaking air box or removing ballast, then I agree that the result would have to be overturned. But Larbre Competition did not cheat. There was no violation of any rules of competition, merely an unfortunate closure with half a litre of fuel remaining in the tank of the number 11 Ferrari, in contravention of article 60 of the Sporting Code which stipulates that three litres must remain in the tank, for checking. “Three litres?” Tony Hancock almost said, “That’s an armful!” No Fairy Tales My first reaction was “bloody scrutineers, they know how to f**k up a perfectly good race.” On Saturday morning I learned that the FIA stewards had deliberated for six hours, and thrown the Larbre Ferrari 550 out of the result. My wrath was transferred to the stewards. But what a stupid rule it is! The whole essence of endurance racing is strategy, playing your strengths, disguising your weaknesses. Gardel and his outstandingly talented partner Pedro Lamy had completed a brilliant season, master-minded by Jack Leconte. They were the underdogs, overcoming the four-strong Maserati onslaught. In Dubai, and again in Bahrain, they came from behind, literally won the championship on the last lap of the last race. It was a thrilling result, a story-book ending to a super championship. The drivers had eked out their fuel to perfection, making two stops only and finishing with half a litre in the tank, after the cooling- down lap. Great stuff, we all said. All, that is, except chief scrutineer Jean Vinatier, and then the stewards. Great scot, if they wanted more fuel for checking, they had only go to go the Larbre pit and draw some from the reservoir! Perhaps they should have done so before the end of the race. Why not? Their hateful decision echoes one made by the stewards at Macau, disqualifying Alain Menu from third position (Chevrolet’s best result) in the final round of the WTCC. Chevrolet lodged a protest immediately, as did Larbre Competition at Bahrain. This horrible, discriminatory rule should be scrapped. It serves no useful purpose, other than to overturn a result that was achieved and applauded at the track. Of course cars may run out of fuel on the final lap, or just beyond the chequered flag. Motor racing has always been like that. The perfect racing car is one that falls to pieces after it has won the race, someone once said. I say again, there was no suspicion of cheating, which would have deserved a harsh penalty, and a fuel sample could have been taken at any time of any day. What happened on Friday evening is a disgrace to the FIA, and a damned shame for the Larbre Competition team. I doubt if Bartels and Scheider will feel too comfortable, either, about earning a championship in this fashion. Did the outcome serve to support Stephane Ratel’s untiring efforts in promoting the FIA GT Championship? I doubt that, too. A plague on officialdom! |
Michael Cotton |
