The Rutronik drivers complained about an “Unsafe Release” by ZVO Racing – However, there is a small change in the regulations of the ADAC GT Masters
“If that’s not an Unsafe Release, then I don’t know what is!” – Luca Engstler and Patric Niederhauser were unhappy after Sunday’s ADAC GT Masters race that no investigation had been launched against the winning ZVO Mercedes 4 (Gounon/Schiller)
A look at the ADAC GT Masters regulations shows that the rules have been relaxed over the winter regarding an “Unsafe Release”. Thus, in the version until 2021, Article 23.9 stated:
“It is the responsibility of the participants to let the vehicle leave its pit or a pit stop position only if this is possible without endangering other participants. In this respect, vehicles in the ‘fast lane’ have the right of way over those in the ‘working lane’. “
For the year 2022, the following passage was added to this paragraph, which explicitly addresses an “unsafe release”: “The mere fact that a vehicle has to brake in the ‘fast lane’ in order to avoid a collision with a vehicle coming from the ‘working lane’ is generally not considered to be a hazard (‘unsafe release’).”
This is primarily to prevent a vehicle that has the pit lane position further back in the pit lane from setting off early and thus forcing a vehicle further forward in turn to have to set off too early.
Thanks to tools such as the Racelogic software, pit stops can now be timed to within tenths of a second, as well as the necessary speed for the rest of the pit lane if one starts too early.
This was exactly the case at Oschersleben. A car that came into the pits first (in this case the ZVO Mercedes) is therefore allowed to rejoin before another one, even if the latter has to brake (in this case the Rutronik Audi).
Thus it is logical that the race control did not even investigate the case around Fabian Schiller and Luca Engstler.
