Ferrari Drivers Feel 6H Spa Win Was “Taken Away”

Ferrari drivers James Calado and Antonio Fuoco believe that the Italian marque had victory in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps “taken away” by the decision to extend the race following the red flag.

The Italian manufacturer was looking good for its first victory of the FIA World Endurance Championship season heading into the penultimate hour, with the two factory 499Ps running first and second at the time of the race being suspended.

Alessandro Pier Guidi had been leading Fuoco by some 25 seconds in the car he shares with Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi when the red flags were shown in the wake of the huge crash on the Kemmel Straight involving Earl Bamber and Sean Gelael.

The timing of the red flag handed the advantage to two cars that had completed pit stops immediately before the stoppage, the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 and the No. 6 Penske Porsche, which went on to finish first and second.

Pier Guidi was forced to take emergency service under safety car when the race resumed with one hour and 44 minutes left on the clock, leaving the No. 51 car sixth before the Italian driver battled back to fourth place at the finish.

Calado said: “It was a shock. We were the fastest car, the car was amazing. It was a race taken away from my point of view.

“I got into the lead and we managed everything perfectly. The pace was incredible. For the race to be extended the race to the 7 Hours 45 [minutes] of Spa was not in our plan.

“In my eyes we should have scored 25 points today and we didn’t for obvious reasons.”

Fuoco salvaged a podium finish in the No. 50 Ferrari he shares with Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, having started the race from the rear of the Hypercar field after being disqualified from pole position on Friday evening.

“I’m not the one to say if it’s the right choice or not [to extend the race], but as a team and as drivers, we think the race should finish after six hours,” said Fuoco.

“I think it was quite clear that we were P1 and P2. I can say no more than this.”

Ferrari’s head of endurance race cars Ferdinando Cannizzo described the decision to extend the race as “questionable”.

“We took the cars, which started at the back of the grid, all the way to the top of the leaderboard, and we were leading the race securely, so much so that we had the three Ferrari 499Ps in the top four positions,” said Cannizzo.

“Unfortunately, an accident at that point led to a red flag, but we consider the decision to extend the race beyond six hours questionable. We feel a lot of regret because we believe the outcome should have been different.”

Calado added that he and his teammates would have been ruled out of victory contention even if the race had not been stopped for Bamber and Gelael’s crash, as the safety car coming out would have prevented the No. 50 car from pitting when it needed to.

“The safety car for us came out at the worst time possible,” he said. “The red flag didn’t make any difference: we would have had to make an emergency stop because we had one lap of fuel left under green or two behind the safety car.”

Fuoco was only saved from taking emergency service because the No. 50 was running an offset of one lap to avoid both Ferraris pitting on the same lap.

He explained: “We were on different strategies, especially on energy consumption. We tried to go a bit longer because one car needed to go one lap more. That was the reason [for the deficit to the No. 51 car before the red flag].”

Despite losing a likely victory amid the red flag and restart, Ferrari at least came away with its first podium finish of the WEC season courtesy of the No. 50 crew, while the No. 51 drivers also registered their best finish of a troubled campaign so far.

“We showed the capabilities that we have, and we also showed them in Imola,” summarized Calado. “The results don’t show it, but it’s two strong performances. So we are only feeling positive going into [Le Mans].”

Ferrari lodged a protest against the stewards’ decision to extend the race as well as the provisional classification, but this was ruled inadmissible under the FIA International Sporting Code as it was not based on a specific breach of the regulations.

This story was updated with information about Ferrari’s protest and statements from the Italian manufacturer’s management at 1:15 a.m. CEST (7:15 p.m. EDT).