Two of the Ford GTs have been disqualified, including the Keating GTE Am winner, for having fuel tanks that were too large. The cars were fitted with a measured tank in the USA, then after they arrived at Le Mans the BOP changed and they had to adjust the tank volume down but didn't have proper measuring equipment.
The Keating car also had refueling times that were fraction of a second too quick, so even without the disqualification, they would have had a time penalty that demoted them to 2nd place in the class.
Conspiracy theories are going to be in overload.
Nulla Tenaci Invia Est Via
Oh man that sucks.
The fuel tank was only 100ml over limit, and the pit stops were 0.6 seconds too short.
100ml... thats like a travel size shampoo bottle.
Sometimes I think these series go to far with things. Changing allowed fuel tank size after the cars are built and at the track is kind of bullshit.
Yeah it is. Seems like they've gone too far trying to balance too many things.
That's how the BoP rolls, though.
I've seen it being controversial before in GT3 but never put too much effort into hopping on either side of the fence. But that was before this week's Le Mans. I was keen on seeing Aston Martin do well after qualifying, but their 5 second/lap advantage was deemed too fast. It turns out they probably needed that 5 seconds per lap just to stay on the lead lap. By the end of the race I was just happy to see the GTE AM Ford GT doing well (those cars have grown on me) but that all fell apart too.
I'm not angry or disappointed. I'm just doing that face where you pull your head back and go "woah" just for a sec (because I still haven't got the energy available to care too much).
But it's here to stay. The ACO is going to use it in next year's hypercar regulations and the homologation for those things will last for five years. They'll fine tune the BoP and fine tune it some more, and eventually the swings in performance won't be so shocking. It has been a thing in GT3 for, what, nearly ten years now? Slightly longer? It's a new system with lots of nuance available and in ten more years we will be finding it odd that a new category won't be using it.
It's also a damn sight cheaper than risking a new manufacturer spending millions on developing a car that turns out to be a slow heap. That's got to be a plus.
Sure its needed but I just question making the changes to something so integrated and difficult to change correctly like the fuel tanks.
Easier to fit an intake restrictor or limit wing angles I would think.(I could be wrong)
Unless you could limit fuel fill with something like a standard gas pump is that even feasible?
Just for curiosity, I looked up the BOP in regards to fuel tank regulations as it changed through the Le Mans week:
Pre-practice BOP as of June 5th...
LMGTE Pro:
Aston Martin - 97L
BMW - 91L
Corvette - 95L
Ferrari - 88L
Ford - 96L
Porsche - 99L
LMGTE Am:
Aston Martin - 99L
Ferrari - 87L
Ford - 95L
Porsche - 98L
Amended pre-practice BOP on June 10th...
LMGTE Pro:
Aston Martin - 98L
BMW - 92L
Corvette - 96L
Ferrari - 89L
Ford - 97L
Porsche - 100L
LMGTE Am:
Aston Martin - 100L
Ferrari - 88L
Ford - 96L
Porsche - 99L
And the final BOP made after qualifying but before the race on June 14th...
LMGTE Pro:
Aston Martin - 96L
BMW - No change
Corvette - No change
Ferrari - No change
Ford - No change
Porsche - No change
LMGTE Am:
Aston Martin - No change
Ferrari - No change
Ford - No change
Porsche - No change
So basically everyone had their tanks expanded by 1L with the late amendment prior to the start of practice (I believe this was a move to coincide with predicted weather and to ensure that teams could go an extra lap if they conserved fuel), so Ford's excuse that they didn't have time to accurately change the tanks after the cars were shipped from the US seems out of place since Corvette would have had the same issue. Aston Martin also had to change their tanks in the one day between qualifying and the race and did not run afoul of the regulations either.
Nulla Tenaci Invia Est Via