After being declared legal by the race stewards at both the Australian and Malaysian Grand Prixs, the FIA International Court of Appeal has declared the disputed diffusers- used by the Brawn, Toyota, and Williams teams- to be legal.
Several teams had questioned the legality of the diffuser designs that appeared on the Brawn, Toyota, and Williams teams 2009 Formula One cars from the start of the season. Ferrari, Red Bull, and Renault lodged appeals with the race stewards in Australia and BMW Sauber filed an appeal with the race stewards in Malaysia. Both sets of race stewards declared the disputed “double decker” design diffusers legal.
The matter then made its way to the FIA International Court of Appeal (ICA) where the ICA found the diffusers in question fully comply with the 2009 regulations. “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,” reads a statement issued by the ICA regarding its decision. The statement also says that full reasons for the decision will be made available “in due course” for all those curious about the technical reasons behind the decision.
Brawn, Toyota, and Williams are, of course, happy with the decision from the ICA. Toyota and Williams both issued statements regarding the decision. “We are pleased with the decision reached by the International Court of Appeal today. We respect the right of our competitors to query any design or concept used on our cars through the channels available to them,” said Ross Brawn, team principal of Brawn GP.
Tadashi Yamashina, Toyota’s chairman and team principal, also commented on the ICA’s decision: “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 with the FIA in our process, and never doubted our car complied with them. This has been a challenging period for Formula One and I am pleased this issue is now in the past and we can focus on an exciting season on the track.”
While the three teams sporting the officially legal diffusers are rejoicing with the news, other teams find the decision unfortunate. The other teams must now either play catch up or lose further ground as more teams become competitive. Ferrari has said the team now has no choice but to modify the F60 to make it more competitive.
“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 from a point of view of the technical regulations,” said Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari team principal. “And that will take time and money.” The team is facing its worst start since 1992 with neither Felipe Massa nor Kimi Raikonnen scoring points in the first two races. The team already restructured its operations and the ICA’s decision added more work to make the cars competitive. “We will now double our efforts to get the team back to the team back to the highest level of competitivity,” Domenicali added.
Source: Official Formula One Website