The Italian driver is second in the standings ahead of the penultimate round of the season, which begins on Friday evening. But he now faces a setback in the Ceredigion tarmac event after the stewards issued a penalty late on Thursday night.
The stewards received a report from FIA Safety Delegate Benjamin Schmidt, who together with Chief Safety Officer Sue Sanders encountered two members of Mabellini’s The Racing Factory team on special stage SS10/12 while carrying out a safety inspection.
The individuals said they were engineers for Mabellini’s team and explained they had nothing to do since the rally car was still held up in customs.
This prompted the stewards to launch an investigation, as team personnel are strictly forbidden from driving on special stages before they have been officially opened to the public again.
The stewards sent a summons to the team at 19:42 on Wednesday. The team only acknowledged receipt nearly two hours later, and the hearing did not start until 21:45.
The team tried to defend itself with explanations. Its representatives told the stewards that the individuals seen on the stage had had their contracts terminated on Tuesday evening and were therefore no longer part of the team.
They also presented what they called “proof” of the terminations – messages sent to the organiser requesting a change of location in the service park. The team claimed it no longer had an engineer and needed to be placed next to competitor car No. 4 in order to use the same engineer.
The stewards, however, found that these messages had not been sent on Tuesday evening, as claimed, but on Wednesday – after the summons to the hearing had already been issued. In fact, the messages were sent during the very two-hour gap while the stewards were waiting for the team to confirm receipt of the summons.
Despite this, the representatives repeated many times that the contracts had been terminated on Tuesday, insisting that Wednesday’s events had nothing to do with the Portuguese team.
The hearings continued on Thursday, when the two individuals involved – Manuel Huguet Panella and Andrea Barbosa – were called to give their own accounts.
Panella claimed his contract had been terminated on Tuesday evening, but could not explain why he told the FIA Safety Delegate and the Chief Safety Officer the next day that he was still the team’s engineer.
Barbosa argued that he was not a full engineer since he had not yet completed his studies, but admitted he acted as a team representative in communication with officials and organisers. He said he did not consider himself an official representative, only an “assistant,” and that he had no written contract with The Racing Factory.
The stewards were surprised to find that Barbosa’s name and photo appear on The Racing Factory’s website under the engineering department. Barbosa admitted that he worked on the basis of a verbal agreement.
Despite the colourful explanations, the stewards ruled that the individuals were clearly associated with Mabellini’s team. As a result, the Italian star was handed a heavy time penalty that could have huge consequences in this year’s title fight.
In their decision, the stewards stated: “The Stewards feel that this infringement of the reconnaissance regulations may have led to the crew gaining an unfair advantage over fellow competitors and thus they decide on a time penalty.”
Poland’s Mikołaj Marczyk leads the ERC standings by 11 points over Mabellini with two rounds remaining. Rally Ceredigion in Wales begins on Friday evening and finishes on Sunday.
