Rules will be strictly enforced, race officials remind Red Bull Air Race pilots

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Rules will be strictly enforced, race officials remind Red Bull Air Race pilots

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Rules will be strictly enforced, race officials remind Red Bull Air Race pilots

by Erik Kay, Apr 17, 2010

Uncompromising enforcement of the Red Bull Air Race rulebook might have upset some of the pilots in the first race of the season in Abu Dhabi but top race officials said there would be no turning back on their goal to make sure the regulations are applied as uniformly and consistently as possible this year.

Drew Searle, the race director in Perth and Jimmy DiMatteo, who was the race director in Abu Dhabi, said there has been an unwavering commitment this season to improve the officiating after acknowledging that there may have been an occasional, though unintentional, lack of consistency in enforcement applied from the training sessions and through the week into racing.

DiMatteo, who will be Searle’s deputy race director in Perth and part of the team of about 10 senior officials who will be watching for infractions, said the pilots were briefed extensively before the Abu Dhabi race and before the season that the rules would be strictly enforced this year after a careful post-season evaluation of the 2009 races showed there was room for improvement in that area. They’ve been reminding them again in Perth that there will be no leniency.

“I don’t think the judging is any different than last year,” DiMatteo said when asked about the criticism from some quarters after a record three top contenders were sent home early with disqualifications in Abu Dhabi. “There’s just a renewed focus to make sure it’s consistent and deliberate, and that it’s briefed to the pilots and then followed through. We’re a growing sport. From year to year in the off-season we look back and examine areas we can improve upon. The stewarding is obviously an area of discussion brought up. The discussion was: ‘How do we improve upon that?’ It was accepted unanimously among all the pilots, the organsation and the sponsors that that’s good for the sport, that we want to make it even stricter and more consistent.”

Austria’s Hannes Arch, American Kirby Chambliss and Germany’s Matthias Dolderer were all unhappy about being told by DiMatteo in the Abu Dhabi to “knock it off” – an order to leave the track -- for violating rules designed to ensure maximum safety. Arch was disqualified when his plane was descending -- ever so slightly – while in a knife edge position at Gate 6 while Chambliss and Dolderer were ejected for flying too low for fractions of a second between Gates 2 and 3, respectively.

Arch, who clearly had a hot plane and won the Qualifying point ahead of the race in Abu Dhabi, was baffled by the DSQ and complained after the race that it had been a normal racing situation. “It seems we all, and especially me, suffered in Abu Dhabi,” he said. “If you’re on a close call and the rules get more strict, it was a big disadvantage for me. I’m not happy about it. I don’t agree. But I can’t do anything about it so I’ll just move on. I try to see the positive side that it’s a long season. But I’m starting with a big gap behind everyone else and it’s frustrating.”

But Searle said it was not even a close call: “The DQs in Abu Dhabi were all no-brainers. Every one of them was justified. You can agree with them or not. That was the playing field and we’re doing all we can to level it. Either you adapt your technique to the rules or you keep doing it and we’ll keep throwing you out.”

DiMatteo and Searle said there were many factors in Abu Dhabi that led to the high number of disqualifications there. It was the first race of the season and the pilots were under a lot of pressure to deliver top results after working hard in the off-season to improve; the winds had changed direction just before the race, making the course completely different from the track the pilots had worked on in training and Qualifying; temperatures were steamy at well above 30 degrees; the top of the field was packed with a dozen pilots within mere seconds of each other after many second-tier teams last year made major off-season improvements.

“There had been a lot of time between races and there were a lot of new planes in Abu Dhabi,” said Searle, who was the deputy race director in Abu Dhabi. “There were a couple of new pilots. We had some heat, some humidity and we had a lot of high expectations in the cockpits out there that these guys were going to walk away with a lot of points. And then when that was suddenly looking not so easy it’s understandable that a highly competitive animal becomes upset. I have no problem with that. That’s sport.”

DiMatteo said the pilots had plenty of warning before Abu Dhabi and were again getting plenty of warning before Perth that they will not tolerate any rule violations – such as descending at all while in a knife-edge position.

“Any time you’re in a knife edge you don’t have any lift on the plane and so our rule is that you have to be either level or ascending slightly,” he said. “But you can’t be descending in a knife edge. As soon as you go into a knife edge your nose is going to start to drop a little bit. So if you come through in a knife edge descending and have to role 180 degrees again that whole time you don’t have any lift on the airplane. We’ve briefed the pilots and said you can’t do it and we’re not going to accept it. You’ve got to be level or climbing in your knife edge.”

DiMatteo conceded that those rules might not have always been enforced as strictly in previous years. “Would that have passed last year? I don’t know,” he said. “It’s a subjective call. It won’t pass this year. You’ve got to be level or climbing in your knife edge. Period.”

DiMatteo and Searle said that the entire aviation department – a total of about 10 people including stewards, tv stewards and the director of aviation – reviewed the disqualifications in Abu Dhabi and were unanimous in the view that all three calls were spot on.

Searle said that the race officials not only want to make fair and accurate calls for the sake of the competitors and race fans. Beyond that the race has an obligation to the local authorities that the rules will be strictly enforced.

“I know the guys get disappointed but that’s not on my radar at all,” he said. “I just worry about the team I’m working with and how we comply with the race rules and also the rules of the jurisdiction we’re in. We have an obligation to follow our rules because that’s what we’ve been permitted to do by the regulators within the country we’re racing.”

Steve Jones, a former Red Bull Air Race pilot and now a TV analyst, said some of the pilots were “still moaning about the officiating in Abu Dhabi but I totally disagree with them.” Jones said had witnessed DiMatteo briefing them every day before the race about the crackdown on the rules.

“Arch was only sinking by a small amount but the race director was consistent with his judging. He consistently said all week during the training flights what would be allowed and what would not be allowed. Some pilots were disqualified in training for sinking less than Hannes did. I think Jimmy should be congratulated for being consistent all week. Last year the guys might have got away with that. It’s certainly more strict this year. But they were warned.”

Searle said there could well be disqualifications in Perth as well because the track has a similarly challenging twin knife edge at Gates 6 and 7 with a tough 270-degree turn in between. “We’ve got the twin knife again and it could very easily be a situation where we’ve got guys doing a descending knife,” he said. “A descending knife is a DQ and that’s that.”

Britain’s Paul Bonhomme, who lost the 2008 championship for just fractionally violating an over-G rule in the penultimate race of the year in Porto, said he welcomed the stricter approach. “The key is to be consistent throughout the week as well as on race day,” he said. “In the past guys might not have got a DQ in training perhaps because of the notion ‘oh, it’s only training’ and then on race day they’d get a DQ and go ‘Why did that happen?’ We’ve gotten away with now. Now they’re being rigorous all week. I think it took some people by surprise. But I think most people are pretty happy about it.”

Nigel Lamb of Britain agreed: “The thing is you want consistency. In my opinion the complaining was not justified at all.”