OCTOBER 26, 2007

Appeal is set for November 15

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 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.