Heavy rain and low visibility forced Formula Winter Series organisers to abandon both the first qualifying session and the first race of the championship’s season finale at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Though no points were ultimately awarded, the decisions proved contentious in the paddock as title protagonists Griffin Peebles of MP Motorsport and Andrés Cárdenas of Campos Racing saw their respective chances shift multiple times based on off-track decisions. Feeder Series was on the ground in Barcelona to observe the chaos.

By Finjo Muschlien

After the now-infamous disqualification of all 38 cars from the first qualifying session in Valencia, FWS seemed to have left behind off-track chaos with a relatively smooth round in Aragón. But the skies in Montmeló had other ideas.

Inclement weather had always been forecast for Saturday, so when track action started at 9:00 local time with GT4 Winter Series’ free practice session, the presence of rain showers came as no surprise. Its severity, however, was alarming. The GT4 session was completed, but cars were generating a significant amount of spray and visibility was minimal.

Did you wonder why FWS couldn’t conduct the first qualifying and race today? Here is why: pic.twitter.com/iExSqPER4e

— Finjo Muschlien (@FinjoMuschlien) March 9, 2024

Qualifying 1

When FWS’ first qualifying session got underway at 9:30, it quickly became clear that the weather was too bad to let 36 F4 cars out on track at the same time. After just four minutes of running, race officials declared the track too wet and the red flag was deployed.

Just moments before the red flag, Cram Motorsport driver Flavio Olivieri stopped at turn five. Feeder Series understands that he made a mistake going into the corner but did not hit the barrier. His car was recovered during the red flag period, and he was set to race later that day.

At 9:35, just moments after the red flag came out, the timing screens were updated with the information that because of the poor conditions, the session would not be resumed. A stewards’ document issued at the same time reflecting the decision to stop the session said the first race’s starting grid would thus be formed “using the combined classification of the official previous test,” per article 31.4 of the sporting regulations.

The document was published on information management platform Sportity at 10:30 local time, but the open wording regarding “official previous test” generated uncertainty in the paddock.

The organisers told Feeder Series on Saturday that before the weekend took place, the paid practice sessions on Thursday had been replaced by two of the official test sessions from Friday, meaning that both Thursday and Friday had two official test sessions each. This nuance would become crucial.

During the time of uncertainty, Feeder Series spoke to personnel from several teams, all of whom expected sessions from both days to be taken into account.

Noteworthy here is that the sessions on Thursday took place in better conditions than did the sessions on Friday, meaning that drivers’ lap times on Thursday were universally quicker and therefore would have set the whole grid order. This would have put Aragón race two winner Thomas Strauven on pole ahead of Peebles, while Cárdenas would have started from 14th position.

Grid for race 1

But this grid never materialised. At 12:38, another document titled “important clarification from promoters” was published. It reads as follows:

“Promoters Clarification: Decision 3 of the Stewards says that according to Art. 31.4 of the sporting regulations, the starting grid of Race 1 will be made using the combined classification of the official previous test. To clarify: Official Previous Test is Friday only. The Thursday is an optional testday and not taken into account. 2nd Clarification: There were no sessions moved from Friday to Thursday. There were only two Sessions on Friday at Barcelona from the beginning. In all communications ist clear that the Thursday is optional.“

The decision to use only Friday’s running came as a surprise to most teams and drivers in the paddock. About five minutes after the decision was published, a team representative from MP Motorsport went into the stewards’ office and complained about it. The official grid was yet to be announced at this stage.

The grid for the first race was officially announced at 13:00. Upon its publication, the reason MP Motorsport staff were unhappy with the decision became clear.

In comparison to the potential grid that would have been created if Thursday’s sessions were taken into account, championship leader Peebles dropped from a potential second to 20th position, while his rival Cárdenas moved from a potential 14th to eighth position.

Further, the results from practice also would have set the grid for the second race scheduled for Sunday morning at 10:50, for which the grid is usually set by the second-fastest laps of qualifying. As Peebles’ second-best lap time was over a second slower than his best lap, he would have been towards the rear of the grid again. Meanwhile, Cárdenas, whose second-best lap time was almost identical to his first, would have been starting much further up the grid. 

Race 1

The weather conditions also initiated schedule changes, which were published three minutes after the clarification on the first race’s grid. With all other scheduled sessions of GT Winter Series, GT4 Winter Series and Prototype Winter Series for Saturday either delayed or abandoned because of the weather conditions, space had freed up, and the first FWS race was brought forward from 15:05 to 14:45.

The contest started behind the safety car at 14:40, the time of the rescheduled formation lap. The conditions, however, were still very poor, and with 25:47 minutes to go, the race was red flagged. Shortly after, it was confirmed that the race would not be resumed.

The field completed two full laps behind the safety car, which raised questions in the paddock about whether half points would be awarded or not. Article 41.2 of the sporting regulations states that no half points will be awarded if the leader completed less than two laps, but article 35.7 reads, “If the race is not resumed, the result will be established by the classification of the penultimate lap completed by the leader before the suspension.” In this case, just one lap was taken into account for the results, so no points were awarded. A final document was published at 16:21, which confirmed that there were no points awarded for the first race.

The document also said that the second-fastest times from the second qualifying session, scheduled for Sunday at 9:00, would now set the grid for the second race. This crucially means that both Cárdenas and Peebles can qualify in better positions in the final two races of the championship on Sunday.

The championship picture for Sunday

The lack of completed sessions on Saturday means that the championship standings are unchanged from how they were after Aragón. But with only 54 points rather than 82 now on offer, six drivers have fallen out of mathematical contention. Entering Sunday’s decisive action, Peebles on 121 points, Cárdenas on 116, MP’s Maciej Gładysz on 80 and US Racing’s Matheus Ferreira on 75 are the only four still able to win the title.

Qualifying two begins at 9:00 local on Sunday, with race two at 10:50 and race three at 15:45. The rain is no longer falling, but cars remain on wet tyres given the dampness of the circuit from Saturday’s rain. Read all about what happened on Sunday here… 

Header photo credit: Daniel Bürgin