F1 2007

[Pete McCluskey.]

Press release from Mclaren,:dead::shrug:



Tuesday 23rd October 2007: The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team confirms that it has, via its UK governing body, the MSA, filed a notice of appeal to the FIA’s International Court of Appeal against the decision not to exclude cars 09, 10, 16 and 17 from the result of the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Rules of the FIA International Court of Appeal allow a team only a short period in which to file a notice of appeal and McLaren has complied with that. The team has taken the view, from the information that we currently have available that there was non-compliance with the Regulations. The team believes that the FIA has, in written clarification of the Technical Regulations and in its minutes of two Formula 1 Team Manager meetings, made clear how it would interpret and manage the Regulations and Procedures associated with the control of fuel temperatures. This process was followed in the normal manner by the FIA Technical Delegate following the Brazilian Grand Prix and the irregularities were reported by him to the Stewards of the meeting. Consequently the team does not understand the justification as described in the decision published late on Sunday evening.

The significance of this matter and its timing is, of course, regrettable. The team wishes to win races and Championships on the track. However, if there has been an irregularity, which is not the fault of the team, we feel that the matter must be properly examined to ensure that the rules are applied. This is something that we believe the FIA would fully support and would wish to be seen to have done.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes wishes to stress, however, that it does not question the integrity of either the BMW or Williams teams. We know, without even enquiring, that neither team would have sought to achieve a performance advantage by such an irregularity and that the situation could only have arisen as the consequence of an operational error within the team on the day.

Ultimately we feel that the FIA should determine whether an irregularity occurred or not, and the team will fully respect the process and any decision that is ultimately given. ENDS

 

[Pat Buckley]

I think that the FIA decision must be appealed - it would be a poor precedent to have a team do something that was not allowed under the regs and have it ignored...where does that end?

 

[Keith]

I think that the FIA decision must be appealed - it would be a poor precedent to have a team do something that was not allowed under the regs and have it ignored...where does that end?

In the Ferrari garage.....

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Damon Hill on Radio 5
Damon Hill has gone on to the attack against the stewards' decision in Brazil, telling Radio 5 Live that he does not understand the decision.

"Rules are rules," Damon said. "The FIA have found some teams are in breach of the regulations. If this had been something McLaren had done during the season, do you think the FIA would have insisted that their cars were legal or illegal? I think on past performance they're prepared to persecute McLaren for any infringement that they've made this season."

Hill is assuming in his statement that the decision of the stewards was influenced by the FIA, which is rather a dangerous claim as the federation makes much of the independence of the stewards. However Hill does have a point.

"It does get quite difficult to see where the consistency lies because if you go back to the beginning of the season, McLaren's argument is that Ferrari won the very first race using a device which was later found to be illegal by the FIA. They removed it but the result stood. It's very unsettling to have this appeal, but there is so much at stake and the FIA have to find somehow a way of being consistent. I can see how a couple of degrees fuel temperature can be regarded as being so negligible that it wouldn't make any difference but we're talking about such tiny differences all the time in Formula 1, there has to be a line where you're one side or the other.

"You have to say there's no doubt there does sometimes seem to be one rule for Ferrari and another for everyone else."

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

From Grandprix.com



The FIA's International Court of Appeal will hear McLaren's case against the decision of the Brazilian Grand Prix stewards on Thursday, November 15. The race stewards at Interlagos decided not to penalise the BMW Sauber and Williams teams despite the fact that temperature readings from their fuel rigs were too low. The stewards decided that there was confusion about which temperature readings should be treated as official as the FIA Technical Delegate uses FOM's own readings but the FIA apparently has some kind of arrangement with Meteo France, which produced different results. In the circumstances it was decided that there was sufficient doubt to warrant rejecting the findings of the FIA Technical Delegate.
Although the question is to be judged by the FIA International Court of Appeal this has not stopped FIA President Max Mosley throwing his hat into the ring with what some might consider to be inappropriate remarks.
"For us the World Championship is over," he said. "The result is what it is."
The good news is that the FIA has expended a lot of effort in recent years to promote the belief that the International Court of Appeal is a fair and independent body, so we can expect the court to look at the legal issues involved rather than listening to the FIA President.
There is no question that the whole business is unfortunate but rules and rules and if a team feels that things are not being run correctly it has a perfect right to ask questions.
No-one in F1 expects McLaren to be successful in its protest