SRO Open to Evaluating FCY Protocol After Spa BMW Crash

SRO Motorsports Group will consider ways to “avoid misunderstandings” after a mix-up before a Full Course Yellow period caused an accident that eliminated two front-running BMW M4 GT3s at the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa.

The No. 998 ROWE Racing BMW driven by Neil Verhagen struck the back of the No. 32 Team WRT car of Charles Weerts on the Kemmel Straight as race control counted down for an FCY.

The collision sent Weerts spinning into the barriers on both sides of the track, resulting in damage to the WRT chassis, while Verhagen’s car had a broken steering arm.

An FCY, which requires drivers to reduce their speed to 80 km/h for safety reasons, is preceded by a 20-second warning, a 10-second warning and a countdown from five.

This information is broadcasted on every vehicle’s in-car electronic display unit and is also transmitted from race control to the teams via radio. Teams can then relay the radio call to their drivers, but absolute priority is given to what is shown on the screens.

At the time, BMW stated that Verhagen and Weerts received “different information” as the FCY approached, while the manufacturer’s head of motorsport Andreas Roos later confirmed that both in-car marshalling systems were working properly.

“We are thinking of trying to avoid misunderstandings,” SRO sporting manager Didi Cazzago told Sportscar365.

“Now it’s 20, 10, five to zero. Maybe we do the countdown from 10 to zero [counting] every number, not only from five.

“I believe that it was a miscommunication from the radio, or there was a delay.

“[Verhagen] was still full-throttle, and maybe he was just listening to the radio and not watching the [in-car display]. I don’t know what principle they use.

“Clearly, there was a misunderstanding. I analyzed this deeply, and four or five cars had the same reaction. So I believe it’s something happening with the car behind.”

Cazzago added that SRO will also evaluate removing the option to cancel an FCY during the countdown. This happened at Spa when several cars reacted and returned to full pace at different times, causing an awkward situation through Eau Rouge.

“To abort a Full Course Yellow when the countdown has already started is not a good idea,” he said.

Roos agreed that steps need to be taken to ensure that miscommunications of the nature seen at Spa are prevented moving forward.

“I think the communication needs to be clearer,” he told Sportscar365.

“The countdown was coming, and ‘FCY now’ came and then immediately the FCY was cancelled. We just have to be a bit more structured to avoid more misunderstandings.

“We have to make sure on our side that the messages are well-understood, and it seems that things like this aren’t happening.”

According to Cazzago, the chain of events leading up to the BMW accident started when a car spun and the marshals reported that it needed assistance to exit the gravel.

Based on that information, race control initiated the 20-second countdown to an FCY.

Onboard video footage from Weerts’ car showed the Belgian driver slowing from 256 to 241 km/h as three cars ahead of him applied the brakes.

It also showed the flashing countdown from 10 to zero, with Verhagen’s BMW striking the back of Weerts’ car between six and seven seconds before the start of the FCY.

Cazzago said that the radio countdown is transmitted at the same time as the in-car marshalling system countdown, although WRT and ROWE claimed that they are not always done simultaneously every time.

“There were a couple of calls on FCYs that didn’t at all correspond to the seconds they should have called,” WRT sporting director Kurt Mollekens told Sportscar365.

“Sometimes you get the 5-4-3-2-1 in tenths of seconds. We try to assist [the drivers] on the radio but we are basically copying what race control is saying.

“That’s why SRO say the in-car marshalling system overrides the other sets of information, flags and radio.

“Sometimes you can get FCY at the wrong place, such as the middle of the Kemmel Straight where you need to come down from 260 to 80 km/h.

“You need to take more precaution, which Charles did.”

ROWE Racing team principal Hans-Peter Naundorf put the onus on race control for an alleged discrepancy in the timing of the radio and in-car marshalling system countdowns.

“There was a Full Course Yellow in 20 seconds called,” Naundorf told Sportscar365.

“Then it was 10 seconds. Then it was 5-4-3-2-1 instantly, Full Course Yellow now. And you could hear on the voice from race control.

“I think they just shortcutted the call, but the marshalling system in the car didn’t.

“The main issue was a wrong call from race control. The teams then reacted differently and relayed different information to the drivers and the worst case happened.

Naundorf added: “Next time, we will tell our drivers not to follow close behind and to get out of the slipstream.

“You don’t know when the other car is braking and it happened here, so just get out of trouble.”

Despite losing two cars in an accident, BMW went on to win Spa with ROWE Racing’s No. 98 entry and opened a lead in the Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli manufacturers’ standings.

“We were happy to win the race and it’s fantastic, but it’s also not the best when you lose two cars in the middle of the night,” Roos reflected.

“The two best cars basically crashed out and the No. 98 who won at the end was a lap down. At this stage, it didn’t look so well for us.”