A post-race protest from ROWE Racing, concerning the way in which Race Control managed the end of the 2024 running of the Nürburgring 24 Hours, has been thrown out by the stewards and subsequently appealed by the team.
The race, provisionally won by the #16 Scherer Sport PHX Audi earlier today, was called with over an hour remaining after a lengthy red flag for fog and five safety car laps.
Prior to the restart under safety car, following the red flag period, the stewards confirmed via a bulletin that the field would head onto the circuit for five sighting laps. Following those laps, the decision would be taken on whether or not the race would be called early, depending on the conditions.
The race then restarted at 13:30 local time, with two and a half hours on the clock and the cars completed the five safety car laps.
Just over an hour later, at 14:49 local time, the message came through that there would be no green flag restart and that the race would end with the safety car leading the cars back into the pits.
The chequered flag was shown at 15:05, 55 minutes prior to the original scheduled end time of the race.
The clock then continued to run during the podium celebrations and the press conference.
ROWE’s argument was that the end of the five safety car sighting laps, at 15:05, should have led to the being “interrupted” a second time, rather than finished.
It believes the end of the race was conducted incorrectly as the chequered flag was shown too early and Art 36.1 of the Supplementary Regulations specifically defines that “at the end of 24 hours, the chequered flag will be shown”.
Had the race been declared “interrupted”, then article 35.3 of the N24 Supplementary Regulations would have come into play.
That regulation states that “the minimum pit stop times applicable at the time of the classification (including any time penalties and Stop-and-Go time penalty) will subsequently be added to the vehicles’ total driving time in the form of a penalty.”
Crucially, the #98 ROWE BMW (which finished seventh) was one of a handful of cars that pitted during the safety car laps at the end of the race. Therefore, had the above time penalties been applied would have seen the #98 rise up the order, into the lead.
This is something that the team has since acknowledged, though it insists that the reason for its protest and appeal is as much to clarify the regulations for future races, as it is to claim a victory for the team.
However, a Stewards Decision, published this evening following the conclusion of the race, states that the “protest is admissible but not justified” as “in the view of the Stewards this wording is not correct. The race was finished at this time.”
The decision goes on to read: “After the announced five laps the leading car entered the pit, but for safety reasons (continuing bad weather conditions) the green flag was not shown.
“This decided procedure was announced on the page ‘RACE CONTROL MESSAGE” at 14:49:34:
‘No restart! Safety Car come in in this lap. Overtaking is not allowed.’
“The CoC decision was to show at the Line, the Finish Flag.
“This procedure (showing the finish flag too early) is regulated in DMSB Circuit Regulations Art. 22:
“‘If the checkered flag is shown prematurely, this time is decisive for the classification.’
“It should also be mentioned that competitor #98 did not suffer any disadvantage in his placing as a result of the checkered flag being shown too early.
“This means that regardless of whether the premature display of the checkered flag is considered to be an error or not, the order of passing at that time is decisive.”
Crucially, according to the DMSB, these regulations above apply to “all events and series on the circuit”.
The Stewards therefore ultimately decided that the protest was “unfounded”.
As ROWE has filed an appeal, the race result remains provisional.
Speaking with media (including DSC) after the race, ROWE team boss Hans-Peter Naundorf gave his side of the story:
“But we say the race director didn’t, let’s say, finish the race, according to the regulations. He applied his own rules, which are outside of the regulations,” he said.
“And we just want to say I want to have him applying the regulations, that’s what we all want. We want to stay within the regulations.
“There’s the ruling from the ADAC, there’s a ruling and the texts from the DMSB and from the international sports. And all three have not been applied properly. And that’s what they say.
“We teams want to have the security and the knowledge that a race, for example, ends under the conditions and under the regulations, which is written.
“That’s why they are there and they are not applied properly.
“You could have done, like you’ve done overnight, exactly the same (procedure), you red flag it, the cars come into the pit. And then again, you have options on how to react, you could have run the time down, wait until four o’clock and it’s finished.
“It’s not us doing this solely because we might have a chance to win.”
