Barrichello Feels Gamble Penalty Was “A Bit Too Harsh”

Image: IMSA

Eduardo Barrichello said he felt that the drive-through penalty for his co-driver Tom Gamble, who collided with the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Philip Ellis while battling for the GTD class win in the closing stages of Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge was “a bit too harsh.”

The two cars were locked in an intense battle for the lead of the GT-only contest at Virginia International Raceway, where Ellis was attempting to find a way past the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, which was also the points leader by virtue of Gamble’s co-driver Barrichello.

With six minutes left on the clock, Ellis made a deep move into Turn 3 to briefly take the class lead, but then ended up on the outside of Gamble in the next complex of corners before contact was made between the two cars.

IMSA race control issued a drive-through penalty for Gamble’s No. 27 Aston Martin, despite the Aston Martin factory driver surrendering the position a few corners later.

When asked post-race his view of the incident from the pit box, Barrichello said: “It’s difficult to tell because the [tire] deg is so high and the cars get really tricky to drive in the end.

“Of course at the end of the race, you’re really trying to go for it. It’s elbows out.

“I think Tom realized his move was probably not the best, so he gave up the position, which means he tried to do a fair play.

“But we still got a drive-through, which I think is a bit too harsh. The other car didn’t even go off track.

“I know it wasn’t the right move but when you’re trying to do a fair play and you let the other car by, I think you should just continue racing because the 57 would have probably just pulled away anyways because they were a bit too quick.

“I don’t agree with the penalty.”

Ellis, for his part, felt like the contact wasn’t intentional, although the penalty ultimately decided the race, which went to the Swiss ace and co-driver Russell Ward, their third consecutive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD win.

“He was being held up by the Paul Miller BMW quite a bit, especially in Turn 1; he was pretty slow there, so I could always gain some time that I lost in the last corner come out, so I never had a good run where he didn’t even to defend into [Turn] 1, I was just too far away,” Ellis explained.

“That particular lap, I was close enough to know that he was pretty weak braking for [Turn] 3, and he always had a super wide line, so I just took my chance and rolled up the inside and overcooked it just enough so he could get the undercut done.

“But at that point, I was far enough next to him to try and go on the outside and be in position for [Turns] 5 and 6.

“I actually expected it to end there, not in [Turn] 4. I don’t think it was intentional by Tom by any means. He was just late on the brakes, on full ABS. We were all struggling a lot on tire deg today. It was a super hot race.”

Despite finishing fourth after the drive-through, Barrichello and the No. 27 Aston squad dropped to third in the GTD points standings as a result, now 56 points behind new leaders Ellis and Ward.

“It’s obviously difficult at the minute,” said Barrichello. “We’ve been struggling just to find a rhythm again.

“At the beginning of the season we did a good job and got a couple of podiums at Daytona and Sebring and Laguna, whatnot.

“We’re struggling at the minute with a lot of penalties coming our way. It’s difficult to say what’s wrong, really, because a lot has been wrong the last few rounds.

“We thought that this round could have been it.

“Not even a win, but a podium would have been nice to finally get back into a rhythm. It’s not our time and we’ll just have to regroup and try next time.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John