When Ferrari and AF Corse pass off engineers as marketing staff

All means are good to try to win, including fraud. At the opening of the season WEC in Qatar last March, Ferrari and AF Corse tried to strengthen their operational team with the arrival of additional engineers for the inaugural round.

On paper, nothing seems out of the ordinary. But on closer inspection, the FIA ​​ended up finding the “deception”. While visiting the technical and hospitality areas of the Ferrari teams for an inspection, a Fed delegate surprised three people who did not have to be present in the area. These were “ sat behind their computers and worked on technical issues related to racing cars such as technical aerodynamic data."

Ferrari and AF Corse caught in the flag

When approaching them, the delegate noticed that the three men in question were not wearing the pink bracelet, used as an identification system for the operational staff of the teams. Yet, on their screens, they worked “ on simulations and technical applications such as MATLAB Simulink, and their computers were connected to the internal network,” reports the FIA.

Questioned by the delegate, they presented themselves as people responsible for marketing and communication and declared that their passes had been issued for “Ferrari” according to the official document.

FIA opens investigation

Unsurprisingly, the Federation did not sit idly by and launched an investigation by summoning Bati Pregliasco (AF Corse team manager) and Mauro Barbieri (Ferrari performance director).

The authorities quickly realized that the three men had not been declared by AF Corse in the list of operational personnel as stipulated in articles 1 and 2 of appendix 7 of the WEC 2024 Sporting Regulations. These appeared on the first list of “non-operational personnel”, refused “ on the grounds that some of them were not non-operational staff since they were engineers »

A second was submitted on which two of the engineers no longer appeared, neither on that of operational personnel, nor on that of non-operational personnel. This was also refused since the third was still mentioned on the non-operational staff list.

Eventually, their names disappeared from all lists. At least, officially because unofficially the three men never left the Ferrari/AF Corse fold.

After investigation, the Italian clan indicated that the three men, once suspected of working on the No. 83 Hypercar, were involved in the No. 3 GT54. Having heard both parties, AF Corse was fined 60.000 euros, with 30.000 euros payable immediately, and 30.000 suspended which will be withdrawn in the event of an infringement of Appendix 7 of the FIA ​​WEC 2024 Regulations.

As a result, the FIA ​​demands that Ferrari and AF Corse declare the three men “ as operational personnel, involved in operational activities simply by virtue of their quality as engineers. " Well tried.

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