SRO Working to “Reinforce” Technical Department

Photo: Dirk Bogaerts/SRO

SRO Motorsports Group is working to increase its technical staff following controversial stewards decisions in several races this year.

The move to “reinforce” the technical department, which is led by technical director Claude Surmont, comes after the crowning of Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup champions Black Falcon was delayed by six weeks during an appeal process.

It was one of a number of high-profile penalties given to teams throughout the course of the season, along with Belgian Audi Club Team WRT being stripped of its pole position at the Total 24 Hours of Spa. 

SRO founder and CEO Stephane Ratel admitted that clearer communication following the WRT penalty could have prevented Black Falcon from getting into a similar situation at Barcelona two months later.

“I think we have to reinforce our technical department, and we need to improve technical communication,” he told Sportscar365.

“After the Audi problem at Spa, there should have been a clear communication to the teams to say taping is not allowed. You can’t reinforce, you can’t seal, it’s simply not authorized.

“If there had been a clear technical communication, we would have not gone into this type of problem.”

Ratel explained that the SRO’s rapid increase in technical partnerships and events has necessitated changes to be made to the technical department, although he wouldn’t give details on what will be carried out.

“Claude Surmont has done an amazing job by himself, but by himself,” Ratel explained.

“It comes to the point where we need to build more and reinforce it because a single man can not just do 125 events, between the events we organize and the ones we have a technical partnership with.

“It’s impossible, so we need to reinforce our team, which we’re working on.”

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.