MAY 6, 2005

Problems for BAR

British American Racing Honda is facing a race against time to get a court to rule that it can take part in the Spanish Grand Prix. The problem is that the FIA is under French jurisdiction and there was a French national holiday on Thursday. As a result of this most of the courts decided to take Friday as a holiday as well and turn the weekend into a four-day holiday. Other courts in Europe might deal with the case but this would involve complicated arguments about jurisdiction and so the FIA may well end up getting its way for this weekend.

The big question is whether or not BAR would then challenge the FIA in order to compete at Monaco. There is time to do this before the Grand Prix but disruption of the Monaco GP is not something that any of the teams like. However this does not mean that BAR Honda will let the penalty rest and as there was no way that it could stop the decision in Spain there could end up being claims against the FIA for damages.