TF Sport Calls for Action Amid Frustration at Aston Martin BoP

TF Sport has aired frustration at the Balance of Performance for the Aston Martin Vantage GTE and called for the FIA World Endurance Championship to take action before the next race at Fuji.

Team principal Tom Ferrier told Sportscar365 that he feels the Astons have been consistently off the pace compared with the other GTE-Am manufacturers this season.

The No. 25 Oman Racing Team Aston Martin, which is run by last year’s GTE-Am champion TF Sport, finished seventh in the 6 Hours of Monza but Corvette Racing secured the title with two rounds to spare.

“We’ve been 1.4 seconds off at Sebring, 1.4 seconds off at Portimao and had a 20 millibar [turbo boost pressure increase] for Spa,” Ferrier claimed.

“Finished third on the podium at Spa. [The drivers] did a good job and it was a good, lucky race for us. We were still nine-tenths off on ultimate pace.

“Then come to Monza with no change and, surprise, surprise, we’re nine-tenths off again.

“I don’t know why the Aston has not been looked at in any sense. There’s not one metric that it shows we’ve been fast at any race this year.

“Le Mans is a separate BoP, but we’re still a fair chunk off the Corvette and the Porsche there in terms of outright pace.

“It’s frustrating to me, when everyone has a clean race and we have a clean race. That is us as eighth [on the road] at best, isn’t it? We didn’t mess anything up.”

Ferrier called for the FIA and ACO, which manage the BoP in GTE-Am and Hypercar, to consider adjusting the Aston Martin ahead of the 6 Hours of Fuji in September.

A BoP change was made before Monza, with the Chevrolet Corvette C8.R and Ferrari 488 GTE Evo each receiving a 10 kg weight increase outside of the success ballast system.

The podium ended up being swept by Porsche 911 RSR-19s from Dempsey-Proton Racing, Iron Lynx and GR Racing, marking the German manufacturer’s first win of the year.

The 1000 Miles of Sebring season-opener has been the only race where the fastest lap from an Aston Martin was less than a second slower than the best lap in GTE-Am.

According to the FIA and ACO, the BoP in GTE-Am is established and adjusted using data provided by competitors and manufacturers.

“There seems to be reluctance to let the Astons race again at the moment,” said Ferrier.

“Every race [the organizers] do a report. It’s frustrating: they send us the driver data for all the averages of fastest lap, theoretical lap, 60 percent of the race, 10 percent of the race.

“Never are we anywhere close to the fastest car. It’s a World Championship and it’s just not really fair. They just need to make a proper change to get us a better shot.”

Al Harthy, who shares the ORT Aston with Charlie Eastwood and Michael Dinan, also called for the championship to review the BoP for the final two rounds of the season.

“During my stint, I really had a good few opening laps, but when the race started to neutralize slightly we saw the difference in performance with the others,” he said.

“My main goal was to keep us in the hunt, we were off sync with our strategy and it was actually looking good at that point. As soon as we went into the third hour and the second half of the race, the pace became even stronger from the others.

“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to be competitive with that kind of difference.

“Top speed is critical at Monza, and we just weren’t on a level playing field, so hopefully the organizers will look at this before Fuji.”

Three Aston Martins, including both TF Sport-run cars, are expected to be on the grid in Japan after The Heart of Racing made a planned absence from the 6 Hours of Monza to focus on a clashing IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race.