The team faced a lengthy stewards inquiry during the Tasmania SuperSprint after neither of its cars had a working live stream during the Saturday race.
Seperate to the TV broadcast cameras, the stream – which feeds the Supercars app – runs off the VBOX judicial camera and data system.
An allegation that Triple Eight changed settings to disable the feed was dismissed after it emerged that the blackout was the result of a software mismatch.
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However, Triple Eight would still likely have received a fine based on the fact the feeds weren’t working had it not been for three crucial words.
A rule added mid-season was previously worded as below (Rule D21.2.5.2).
“The Team will be required to ensure that the video stream output for judicial purposes is functioning in the correct manner.”
The words ‘for judicial purposes’ have been removed in supplementary regulations issued this week for Sandown and Bathurst.
Stewards in Tasmania had concluded that, although not streaming, the fact the footage had recorded to the SD cards meant Triple Eight had fulfilled the ‘judicial purposes’ requirement.
“While the footage recorded on the SD card in the camera has always been recognised as required for judicial purposes, the video stream is not,” read the stewards report.
“It is evidence which can be considered by the Stewards but it is not a formal judicial tool. The camera did record footage captured by it onto the SD card.
“Therefore, the judicial function of the camera was fulfilled and the Team could have complied with the delivery up requirement in Rule D21.3.8.
“In our view, the words “for judicial purposes” in Rule D21.2.5.2 are a misnomer.
“Therefore, even if the streaming problem could have been detected and resolved earlier, it cannot be said that the Team failed to ensure it was operating “for judicial purposes”.
“For this reason, we decided to take no further action.”
MORE: Full stewards decision from Triple Eight streaming saga
The live stream feeds are controversial as they allow rival teams, as well as fans, to view telemetry from every car in the field.
Widespread scraping of this data has led to debate over whether Supercars should directly distribute a feed of select data from all cars throughout pitlane.
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