Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
All three of PHM Racing by Charouz’s cars will be starting from the pitlane for Formula 3’s Monaco feature race today due to a rules breach committed by the team.
In an announcent distributed on Saturday night, the series stated:
“PHM Racing by Charouz’s Piotr Wisnicki, Sophia Floersch and Roberto Faria will all start Sunday’s feature race from the pitlane. The team were found to have exceeded the total of 11 personnel working on their cars by allowing a representative to scan their tyres after parc ferme.
The stewards determined that the actions were a serious breach of Article 21.5 of the operational staff regulations, which are designed to be a key cost limiting component for the championship. These additional personnel released existing team members to perform other functions, with a severe penalty issued due to its seriousness.
As a result, the trio will all have to start the feature race from the pitlane in their qualifying order, with Wisnicki lining up ahead of Floersch and Faria.”
Wisnicki had qualified 25th for the feature race, with Floersch and Faria propping up the rear of the 30-car grid. In the sprint race Wisnicki had climbed up to 18th from 23rd on the grid, while Floersch had risen from 28th to 23rd and Faria had retired on the opening lap.
Floersch is currently the highest placed of the trio in the championship standings, albeit down in 25th, while Wisnicki and Faria are 28th and 29th. All three of the drivers have so far failed to score in the first five races of the season.