How the Top Three Winners in the Le Mans Cup Got Disqualified
Think you’re having a bad day? These competitors lost their podium placements for using the wrong length screws on their cars.
We all have heard of teams getting disqualified after races for breaking the rules. Sometimes it’s for exploiting the loopholes in the rulebook. Usually this is due to the fact that the car fell out of the mandated regulations. Usually the items aren’t too extreme, but can easily be identified. For example, making more boost than allowed by class rules, replacing a differential without informing the regulating body, you get the idea. Most of the time if the violations aren’t too heinous, the teams get to take it on the chin and move on with a fine or a grid penalty. However, the situation that occurred at the Michelin Le Mans Cup race at Spa-Francorchamps last weekend resulted in a very different situation. Thanks to an article by Daily Sportcar, we get to understand what exactly happened at the track that day.
According to an official report released by the regulatory body who judges the Le Mans Cup, the crashbox mounting screws of the top three teams were not within compliance with the homologated format. The compliant fixation screws according to the stewards are M8 x 25mm and no other length or bolt size is legal. In the report, these three teams had used different bolt lengths, one team using 20mm and the other two using 10mm screws. This screw length reduction was supposedly done to reduce the time period for removing the crashbox fixtures in case of an accident and thus saving time on replacement.
As a result, all three teams were disqualified from the race entirely and lost their podium positions. The stewards’ strictness of the issues supposedly rises from the fact that the crashbox is a safety item, thus, any changing of homologated parts could pose a safety hazard as those items have not been tested. Whether or not the different is 5mm in length or not, makes no difference to the stewards, the fact that the size has changed at all is the problem.
As you might imagine, the teams associated with this are livid with the stewards decision and feel it is unjustifiable to have such a strict punishment for such a minor offense. One of the teams even refused to sign the stewards’ decision in protest. Who’s side are you on?
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