AF Corse Lodges Protest Against GTE Balance of Performance

Ferrari squad AF Corse has lodged a protest against Balance of Performance decisions issued by the FIA World Endurance Championship for the Bahrain double-header.

A bulletin issued on Friday morning stated that a protest was officially lodged by the Italian competitor at 4 p.m. local time on Thursday afternoon, while a stewards’ decision is expected to be made at approximately 4 p.m. on Friday.

Another bulletin from the WEC stewards confirmed that AF Corse has protested against two BoP rulings.

The first concerns the initial BoP given to the Ferraris for the 6 Hours of Bahrain, while the second concerns an update made on Wednesday ahead of Saturday’s eight-hour race.

AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evos in both GTE-Pro and GTE-Am, however the protest only covers the two factory-entered Pro cars.

Prior to the six-hour race, the GTE-Pro Ferraris were dealt a power reduction that fell outside the WEC’s automatic BoP system for the top GTE division.

The Italian manufacturer struggled against the two-car effort from Porsche in last weekend’s 6 Hours of Bahrain and later requested for the BoP to be reinstated to what it was for the 6 Hours of Monza.

An amended BoP was issued on Wednesday giving back half of the turbo boost that the Ferraris lost in the initial ruling, plus a two-liter fuel capacity increase.

Porsche on Thursday voiced concerns that the Ferrari entries had been masking their true potential, shortly before the top Porsche 911 RSR-19 beat the quickest Ferrari by three seconds in Free Practice 1 on Thursday.

A Ferrari then led the second Free Practice session on Friday morning.

Ferrari and Porsche crews are battling for the FIA World Endurance Championship GT title this weekend, with AF Corse pair Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado leading Porsche’s Kevin Estre and Neel Jani by a single point heading into the decider.