Audi teams’ Portugal results reinstated

The Audi Sport customer racing teams WRT and Comtoyou Racing have had their results reinstated following an appeal against their exclusions from the races of the 2019 World Touring Car Cup at the Vila Real street circuit in Portugal — however the teams have instead been given a suspended fine, with the FIA accepting partial responsibility and splitting the appeal costs.

The two Belgian teams filed an appeal against their exclusion, after the cars of Jean-Karl Vernay (WRT) and Frédéric Vervisch (Comtoyou Racing) were found to have exceeded the boost levels on three occasions collectively over the course of the weekend.

Another car was also excluded for the same issue, the Comtoyou Racing-run Cupra TCR of Tom Coronel, who had finished 19th in the second race of the weekend, but even though Coronel’s exclusion was technically the same as Vervisch’s, Comtoyou Racing only appealed on behalf of Vervisch, which draws a line under who really pushed for the appeal, Audi Sport.

Vervisch was excluded from 20th position in Race 1, and so it makes no difference to the leading Audi driver’s points tally in the championship.

Vernay however had finished tenth in Race 1, and fifth in Race 3, and so benefits heavily from his positions’ restoration, leaping from 12th to tenth in the points table, and is now just four points behind Vervisch.

Audi Sport customer racing had confirmed to this writer that the basis of the appeal was to clarify the procedural concerns with the way the cars’ boost was measured.

The appeal was heard just before the most recent round of the championship in China, and a revised boost table for all the Volkswagen Group cars was published just ahead of the weekend. This was in addition to a revision to the boost scales for the Lynk & Co cars, who had suffered a similar overboost-based exclusion earlier in the season at Zandvoort in the Netherlands, when their driver Yvan Muller lost his pole position.

The case by the Volkswagen Group teams is that their Engine Control Unit (ECU), is unable to regulate the boost levels to the exacting extent being requested by the FIA, being a largely road car-based piece of technology for cost reasons - with two of the Volkswagen Group cars, the Cupra TCR and Golf GTI TCR, among the most cost-effective TCR cars on the market.

The teams' argument was that the ECU “is not designed to control the boost pressure in particular situations encountered in competition and in the event of higher heat,” but the FIA response was that the selection of the ECU is not in their control and “the Competitors chose to use it…at their own risk.”

A detailed analysis into the eligibility of the cars was conducted, and while much focus was on the methodology in which the boost calculation was made, with the FIA data readings being taken with a 1,000Hz system, while the technical regulations set a 100Hz processing figure; the ICA concluded that the cars were still in breach of the relevant boost limits, and that the more accurate measurement would have yielded the same result, should a 100Hz system have been used.

However, it was then determined that the boost chart is a component specified under the WTCR sporting regulations, not the technical regulations, therefore there were no grounds for an outright exclusion of the cars.

This means the sanctions imposed had to be set according to the sporting regulations, and the ICA concluded that disqualification would be a “disproportionate” penalty, given the negligible performance advantage.

The FIA therefore replaced the exclusion with a fine of 15,000 EUR per car per race, suspended for two years.

WRT is therefore given a suspended fine of 30,000 EUR, and Comtoyou Racing 15,000 EUR.

The court costs are split 40% each for WRT and the FIA, and 20% for Comtoyou Racing.