Corvette “Fully Expected” Ferrari to Reach End Without Fuel Splash

Nick Tandy says Corvette Racing was surprised by its late GTE-Pro victory in the 6 Hours of Monza, as it “fully expected” the class-leading Ferrari to have enough fuel to make it to the end of the race.

Corvette took its first victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship outside the 24 Hours of Le Mans when Tandy brought the No. 64 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R that he shares with Tommy Milner across the line on Sunday evening.

The American squad had looked set to finish second behind AF Corse less than a handful of laps before, as it had been trailing behind the No. 52 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco.

Fuoco, however, had to pit for a splash of fuel with two laps remaining, which allowed Corvette to take the lead and the class victory.

Tandy said that the events at the conclusion of the six-hour enduro had their roots at the halfway point, when all but Porsche driver Fred Makowiecki pitted under a safety car triggered by an enormous airborne crash for TF Sport’s Henrique Chaves.

With the timing of the stop, Tandy predicted that it was going to be difficult for the GTE-Pro contenders to make it to the end on two scheduled pit visits from there.

“We had no idea what cars could make it,” he admitted after the race. “I think there was a safety car, four of the five cars pitted under the safety car.

“There were basically three hours left so it is going to be a stretch for all cars to make it on two stops.

“From then it became a fuel mileage race and when the last Full Course Yellow came out, this made it even worse for all cars because everyone had to pit for fuel, because we needed it.

“But it made the last stint another couple of laps longer. In the end, we were the car that made it.”

Tandy admitted he was surprised to see Fuoco dive into the pit lane in the closing minutes, saying that he “fully expected” the Ferrari driver to make it to the end.

“We knew we had to be super aggressive with the fuel numbers,” he said. “After the Full Course Yellow, the guys gave me a fuel number and I did laugh a bit when they said it but I knew that if we pitted it was going to be game over.”

The Briton explained that from there he tried his best to keep the pressure on the Ferrari but noticed Fuoco upped the pace towards the end of the final stint.

“I thought at the time: I hope that they’ve actually given up on trying to make the number of laps,” Tandy noted.

“We didn’t, we just assumed they thought they were safe and could run the pace that they wanted but in the end it turned out they didn’t.

“We only knew when I saw them come into the pits in front of me literally as they passed the timing stand.

“Everyone all of a sudden went from ‘good race, podium’ to ‘holy [crap] we’re about to win the 6 Hours of Monza.’

“It was pretty cool and now we’re going to go and party.”

“Quite Impossible” for Ferrari to Change Strategy

Fuoco hinted that the late splash for the No. 52 Ferrari was something of an inevitability, saying that the team would have needed a safety car or FCY in the closing stages to reach the checkered flag on its fuel load.

The episode was reminiscent of last year’s Monza race where the No. 51 Ferrari lost its lead in the closing stages due to a fuel top-up.

“I think it was quite impossible,” Fuoco said when asked if Ferrari could have tried a different strategy.

“Every stint we did the same amount of laps, so in the end it was impossible to do any extra.

“We did our best in terms of strategy and couldn’t do anything different to arrive at the end.

“We knew from the middle of the stint that if everything was clean we needed to splash. We were hoping for a Full Course Yellow or safety car, but it didn’t come.”

Despite failing to take the win, the 26-year-old said that AF Corse could take positives away from its home race.

“We gave the maximum until the end,” he said.

“We were a bit unlucky to do the splash. But I think we did a really good job, from all the people on the team.

“I’m not happy because we didn’t win the race, but it was a good result for us.”

Daniel Lloyd contributed to this report