WINWARD Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 disqualified from the second Misano race

The results of the second race at Misano in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup were still considered provisional whilst an investigation was carried out into a wheel bearing on the WINWARD Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Maro Engel and Lucas Auer. The findings of this investigation are now available, and the car, which had crossed the finish line in third place, has been disqualified from the race results. Consequently, Valentino Rossi and Max Hesse move up to third place in the second race.

The hearing, which began at 09:30 on Friday, was interrupted twice to allow the Technical Director to comment on the points raised by the team representatives; it resumed first at 15:00 and then again at 17:15. The race stewards consider it appropriate to record this, as the explanations provided by the Technical Director during these interruptions are directly relevant to the findings set out below.

During the additional technical inspections, it was found that ‘the sealing lips of the wheel bearing had been cut off on both sides’, which was not disputed by the representatives of WINWARD Racing.

For their part, they explained that “they could not have known that the wheel bearing was subject to the regulations, as the term ‘wheel bearing’ does not appear in Article 1.12 of the Balance of Performance document for Misano, whilst it is explicitly listed in the Balance of Performance document published for the Brands Hatch event.”

The organiser states: “This argument does not stand up to scrutiny of the wording of the article on which the team representatives are relying. Article 1.12 does not oblige participants to refer exclusively to the list of terms set out in the BoP document.

Topic of the week

Ferrari row with Hamilton and Leclerc: Team principal Vasseur must now step up

Ferrari came away empty-handed at the Dutch Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton finished fourth, Charles Leclerc fifth. Afterwards, both drivers were angry, and team principal Fred Vasseur found himself having to explain the situation.

Mathias Brunner

Read more

It expressly instructs them to contact their manufacturer. Following the adjournments of the hearing, the Technical Director explained that the terminology used in Article 1.12 (‘axle, steering, suspension’) had been deliberately chosen at the manufacturers’ request to align it with the heading of Article 6 (‘axle, steering and suspension’) of the FIA GT3 Homologation and the DTM GT3 Homologation – in which the wheel bearing is listed under Article 6.3 – thereby confirming that the terminology used in Article 1.12 reflects the structure of the homologation documents available to the manufacturer.

The Stewards consider this explanation to be consistent with the wording of Article 1.12 itself and are of the view that the absence of the term ‘wheel bearing’ in the Misano document, compared with its presence in the Brands Hatch document, does not substantiate the ambiguity claimed by the team representatives.”

Furthermore, WINWARD Racing was unable to demonstrate that the team had discussed this component with Mercedes-AMG. The technical analysis document clearly states that the component complies with the regulations in terms of mass, dimensions, diameter and number of moving parts.

However, the cut-outs in the sealing elements led the race stewards to announce the disqualification of car No. 48, as the wheel bearing did not comply with the regulations governing the homologation of the Mercedes-AMG GT3.