Ferrari Confirms Spa Protest Appeal; Wants Rules “Clarity”

Ferrari’s global head of endurance Antonello Coletta has confirmed the Italian brand has filed an appeal against its rejected protest following the Spa round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, as it seeks “clarity” for what will happen in the future.

The FIA took the unprecedented decision to extend the overall duration of the 6 Hours of Spa following the huge crash involving Cadillac’s Earl Bamber and the WRT BMW LMGT3 car of Sean Gelael that led to the race being halted for nearly two hours.

Ferrari was the big loser as it lost a likely victory as a result of two cars that had pitted immediately before the red flags, the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA and No. 6 Penske Porsche 963s, were effectively promoted to first and second when the race resumed.

The best of the 499Ps, the No. 50 car of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, finished third, one place ahead of the sister No. 51 machine.

Ferrari’s initial protest against the results was ruled inadmissible, but a spokesperson for the brand confirmed last week during scrutineering for the 24 Hours of Le Mans that an appeal had been filed without providing further details.

While Coletta did not get into the specifics of the legal basis for Ferrari’s appeal, he said that he hopes the process will result in more certainty going forward for what will happen in red-flag situations.

“We filed a complaint and an appeal,” Coletta told reporters on Wednesday. “At this stage we prefer not to disclose any details. We are waiting to have the discussion and a date for the hearing has not been set.

“But it’s important to know the interpretation [of the rules] to be sure what will happen in future.

“We have had a lot of situations that have been interpreted in different ways in the past, like Fuji many years ago [2013], and Sebring [in 2022]. We need to have clarity because it could impact the strategy and the decisions we make.

“At Spa, nobody could have imagined what happened. We were astonished. It was completely unexpected in terms of strategy.”

The events of Spa dealt a blow to Ferrari’s WEC title hopes, especially as it followed off the back of a frustrating race at Imola where the 499P proved the class of the field in the dry only for the team to slip up on tire strategy in wet conditions.

Fuoco, Molina and Nielsen head into Le Mans fifth in the Hypercar drivers’ standings, 34 points behind the championship-leading No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport crew.

James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi lie ninth, a further 22 points behind, in the No. 51 car.

“If we consider the championship standings, we can’t be happy, but we are happy with the competitiveness of the car,” said Coletta when asked to review the season so far.

“At Spa, we were first, second and fourth halfway through the race, and at Imola we were 1-2-3 in qualifying but we made a mistake during the race [with strategy].

“We paid a high price for that mistake, it’s part of the game. But at Spa, there is nothing to reproach and we deserved a good result.”