Janice R. Andrews
AF Corse Ferrari’s hypercar team lost their second-place finish in the Bahrain WEC season finale after officials found they exceeded their tyre allocation. While stewards claimed the team used 28 Michelin tyres instead of the permitted 26 for qualifying and race combined, Ferrari’s sportscar technical director Ferdinando Cannizzo maintains they stayed within the limit.
The penalty demoted the #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar, driven by Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado, and Alessandro Pier Guidi, from second to 14th place. According to Ferrari, the issue stemmed from a communication error where the team accidentally used tyres meant for grid formation during the race instead of their qualifying set. They emphasized that both sets were identical in compound and wear level.
“All I can say is that we ran 26 tyres,” Cannizzo stated, though he kept the details of the mix-up private. He argued that this procedural error provided no competitive advantage and shouldn’t have affected the race outcome. The team’s post-race analysis revealed that while they used the correct number of tyres, two were from outside their declared allocation.
The WEC’s tyre tracking system uses RFID tags and barcodes to monitor usage as cars exit pit lane. Cannizzo highlighted the need for more consistent rule interpretation across races, stating, “We should push to have the same criteria in every race and every situation.”
The penalty erased what would have been a strong finish, as the #51 Ferrari finished just 27 seconds behind the winning Toyota before receiving a 4-minute, 55-second penalty, dropping them two laps behind.
In a separate incident, Michelin received a €15,000 fine (€10,000 suspended) for submitting tyre allocation details just three hours before the race instead of the required 48 hours. Officials determined this delay didn’t affect the race outcome.
Following these events, Ferrari’s technical team has advocated for clearer guidelines and more uniform rule application in future races.
