United Autosports team boss Richard Dean said the stipulation that the pits are closed when the race director triggers a full course yellow or safety car resembled “a lottery” that some teams could derive “a huge benefit” from while others lost out.
Article 14.6.5 of the WEC sporting regulations determines that the pit entry is closed in the first three laps of a safety car procedure, with cars only allowed to make an emergency pitstop for five seconds of fuel and/or to replace a damaged tyre/tyres. No restrictions are applied after three laps under the safety car.
Similarly, article 14.5.2 states that pit entry is closed when FCY is announced, with the same exceptions applied.
Two safety car periods at Monza played a key role in shaping the LMP2 and GTE Am races, won by Jota Sport and Dempsey-Proton Competition respectively, which prompted calls from drivers to find “a solution”.
United Autosports' #23 ORECA-Gibson 07 of Giedo van der Garde, Oliver Jarvis and Josh Pierson led 111 of 193 laps, but dropped back from the winning Jota car that pitted just before the third safety car of the race to cover the stranded Proton Hypercar as it instead had to wait.
Dean told Autosport: “I hate this current FCY, pits closed because if you’re in a position on-track and you think ‘that’s going to be an FCY’ and you can gamble and get in before it gets called, then they got a huge benefit.
“It hinders everybody else and every time it does that, it’s like a lottery.
“The 23 car lost the race at that point, we lost 50-something seconds because of that. I just don’t like the lottery side of pits closed.”
Source: Autosport