Sports News
FIA OKs Rear Diffusers
Motor racing's governing body has approved the use of a car part that helped Brawn GP's Jenson Button win this season's opening two Formula One races.
The FIA's International Court of Appeal says in a statement that the rear diffusers on the cars of Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams F1 are legal.
"Based on the arguments heard and evidence before it, the Court has concluded that the Stewards were correct to find that the cars in question comply with the applicable regulations," read the brief statement. Reasons behind the decision are expected to be released in the next few days.
Brawn GP owner Ross Brawn - who was described by Ferrari lawyers as a 'person of supreme arrogance' during Tuesday's hearing - says he has no hard feelings against his competitors for bringing the issue to the Court of Appeal.
"We respect the right of our competitors to query any design or concept used on our cars through the channels available to them," he said. "The FIA Technical Department, the Stewards at the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix and now five judges at the International Court of Appeal have confirmed our belief that our cars have always strictly complied with the 2009 Technical Regulations."
Toyota team boss Tadashi Yamashina expressed his confidence that what they were doing was legal as well.
"I was confident the Court of Appeal would reach this verdict and I am satisfied with it. It is important to stress we studied the technical regulations in precise detail, consulting the FIA in our process, and never doubted our car complied with them."
Ironically, it was Brawn who one year ago suggested to his fellow designers that the regulations be tightened up to prevent teams from exploiting the loophole he has taken advantage of when it came to the diffuser designs. The other teams rejected his proposals.
"I offered them and they were rejected, so my conscience is very clear," he told Autosport back in March 2008. And those rules that I put on the table would have stopped a lot of things. It would have stopped the diffuser, it would have stopped all those bargeboards around the front, and it would have cleaned the cars up... but nobody was interested. They are interested now."
The decision is expected to force rivals Ferrari, Renault, Red Bull Racing and BMW Sauber to redesign their cars to "catch up" with the three other teams using the split diffuser. Renault is said to be ready with an updated design which could be in place in time for this weekend's race in China.
Ferrari, which has had a dismal start to the season, says the decision will force them to fundamentally change the design of its car.
"Unfortunately this decision forces us to intervene on fundamental areas of the car's design in order to be able to compete on an equal footing with some of the teams," said team boss Stefano Domenicali. "That will take time and money. We will now double our efforts to get the team back to the highest level of competitivity."
Red Bull Racing technical director Adrian Newey has cancelled his appearance in China this weekend in order to work on the team's diffuser solution. Helmut Marko, the team's motorsport advisor, says they hope to have the new parts on the car in time for the Monaco Grand Prix. Marko added that they were angered by the decision because a similar design submitted by Red Bull to FIA for approval was rejected.
BMW-Sauber boss Mario Theissen says while he accepts the ruling, the change will have a dramatic effect on the track.
"This ruling means we now have clarity regarding the application of the regulations. However, it does not achieve the reduction in downforce and cornering speeds intended by the Overtaking Working Group when the new regulations were drawn up."
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