Motorsport is all about exploiting the grey areas, and it’s the winners that do it best, existing in the fine margins.
Winward Racing’s GT World Challenge Europe team principal Christian Hohenadel knows that more than anyone, saying his team takes every regulation “to the limit”.
His #48 team of Lucas Auer and Maro Engel were confirmed ahead of the Portimão finale as full-season Drivers’ Champions, following its successful appeal against a disqualification from the second round of July’s Misano Sprint Cup event.
This week the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium’s National Court of Appeal said the disqualification was “annulled and revoked” – and with the points from that third-place finish no longer at risk, the Winward Mercedes-AMG is unassailable in the title fight, allowing the drivers, along with endurance teammate Lucas Stolz, to focus on the race win this weekend.
“First of all, we are very grateful to achieve the overall Drivers’ Championship,” said Hohenadel.
“As for the weekend, there are two goals now: the overall Endurance Cup [since confirmed after qualifying] and overall [full-season] Teams’ Championships.”
The issue had arisen after the wheel bearings on the Winward car were found to have cuts in them, in what Hohenadel says was a bid to “reduce friction”.
Winward successfully argued against its disqualification on the basis that the SRO’s technical information relating to this component was guidelines rather than an enforceable rule, with Hohenadel highlighting that these guidelines can sometimes change from race to race.
“Paul Ricard [was] standard, then after Brands Hatch it changed, Prologue Spa it changed, Misano it changed,” he explained. “Now it’s stable since the Spa 24 Hours.”
Hohenadel now says that although the appeal came out in its favour, it will take a different approach from here on in.
“Now, just for clarification, we now have the standard bearing. We know what the SRO wants, and we drive like it.”
The championship-winning team boss emphasises however, that exploiting these loopholes is a fundamental part of racing.
“For instance, like the regulation says you are allowed 50kph in the pitlane,” he says.
“So what we do in practice, as every other team does, we try to be 50.01, 50.02, 50.3 – until we get the mark.
“We have to go [take] every single topic in the sporting regulations and the technical regulations to the limit.”
However, the boss is keen to make clear the point of contention between itself and SRO was not actually on a technical rule itself – rather, whether it was even a rule in the first place.
“This is nothing technical,” he says. “The whole thing is just about how you interpret the regulation, and at the end, it was just like a legal point of view, and nothing else.
“And don’t forget, we were in the rules. This is something which is very important.”
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
