Formula E has a reputation for being unpredictable, not only in the nature of the racing but also what happens after the finish, and Saturday’s race at Misano was another example of this.
A few hours after completion, Antonio Felix da Costa, who won ahead of everyone, was disqualified and first place went to Nissan driver Oliver Rowland. Accordingly, all other results were revised, i.e. Jake Dennis, an Andretti driver, moved up to 2nd place, and Max Gunther, driving for the factory Maserati team, moved up to 3rd place.
The reason for the disqualification is quite exotic, and the literal wording from the FIA protocol is as follows: “it was discovered that on car No. 13 the gas damper spring did not correspond to any of the three possible options indicated.”
From the explanation of the Porsche team it follows that the spring in question has not changed since the beginning of the 9th season – we remember that the race in Misano was the 6th stage of the 10th season.
Representatives of Spark Racing Technology, which produces the Formula E chassis, also confirmed that the gas spring installed on Da Costa’s Porsche is exactly the same as that of the previous generation (GEN2) cars.
Because the team is responsible for ensuring that the car complies with the regulations, da Costa’s result in car No. 13 is annulled, even if this discrepancy did not confer any speed advantage.
Porsche stated that they plan to appeal the stewards’ decision; the team has 96 hours to appeal.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
