Ferrari: Tyre allocation breach brought no performance gain in Bahrain

Ferrari says costly tyre allocation infringement did not enhance car performance

Ferrari has insisted that the tyre allocation infringement that resulted in it losing second place in Saturday’s Bahrain World Endurance Championship finale offered no performance advantage.

Ferdinando Cannizzo, the Italian manufacturer’s sportscar racing technical director, said “nothing would have changed, no advantage and no disadvantage” when questioned the day after the race about the infraction that relegated the #51 factory AF Corse Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar to 14th position in the final classification. 

Cannizzo also clarified the nature of the infringement, which he said was contrary to that outlined in the stewards’ bulletin. 

The bulletin announcing the penalty stated that Ferrari had used two more Michelin tyres than the 26 allowed for a qualifying and the race at an eight-hour WEC event. 

Cannizzo said: “All I can say is that we ran 26 tyres.”

There was further clarification in Ferrari’s post-race press release.

“According to the document, the car used 28 tyres rather than the 26 permitted for qualifying and the race – in fact, the team respected the 26-tyre limit,” it read. 

“However, because of a mistake, during the race they [the team] used the tyres fitted to the car for the grid formation instead of those scrubbed during qualifying and intended for the race.

“These two tyres were not considered as part of the contingent allocated by the team, hence the stewards’ decision.”

Cannizzo’s comments suppose that the Michelins mistakenly used on #51 were of the same compound and had already done a similar number of laps as those tyres that were part of its allocation.

Cannizzo would not reveal how the mistake happened. “It is a story I would like to keep for us,” he stated. All tyres used in the WEC have bar codes and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags that are automatically read as a car leaves the pitlane. 

A team declares the individual tyres it is going to use before the start of the race. 

Cannizzo called for consistent interpretation and enforcement of the rules during his post-race press briefing on Sunday afternoon. 

“We should push to have the same criteria in every race and every situation – this is what I would like,” he said. 

“What doesn’t work is to apply different criteria in different situations.” 

Asked if he believed that the tyre allocation rules had been broken and not punished in the past, Cannizzo replied in the affirmative.

The #51 Ferrari shared by Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi, which finished 27s behind the winning Toyota at the end of the Bahrain 8 Hours, incurred a time penalty of 4m55s, which resulted in it being listed as two laps down in the final classification. 

Cannizzo stated that Ferrari’s error was not linked to delays in Hypercar tyre supplier Michelin providing the organisers – the FIA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest – with the list of tyres and their identification codes. 

This was supplied three hours before the start of the race rather than 48 hours prior to the start of the event as laid down in the regulations. 

The stewards ruled that the delay had no impact on the event, but fined Michelin €15,000 with €10,000 suspended.