Court rules Button's car is legal

Share

World motorsport's governing body the FIA has ruled that F1 championship leader Jenson Button's car is legal.

Button has won both races this season and there were complaints that his Brawn GP team and rivals Toyota and Williams used an illegal diffuser.

But following eight hours of strongly worded evidence the International Court of Appeal ruled that the cars "comply with the applicable regulations".

All three teams are free to race in the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.

"The decision comes as no great surprise," said BBC Radio 5 Live Formula 1 commentator David Croft.

"Already this season two sets of stewards, an FIA president and an FIA race director have thought that the diffuser design of Brawn, Williams and Toyota was OK."It's a sensible decision for Formula 1. The FIA's court of appeal were highly unlikely, on technical grounds, to go against the decision of the stewards. Seven teams are now playing catch up and have to do something about it very, very quickly."

Brawn GP team boss Ross Brawn said in a statement following the verdict: "We respect the right of our competitors to query any design or concept used on our cars through the channels available to them.

"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."

Brawn GP currently lead the constructors' world championship with 25 points, with Toyota in second place on 16 points.

A statement from the Japanese team said: "Our team studied the wording of the new 2009 regulations in precise detail to ensure we interpreted them correctly.

"We also made full use of the consultation procedure with the FIA which was a helpful process to ensure our interpretation of the technical regulations was correct."Therefore we had every confidence that the design of our car would be confirmed as legal, firstly by race stewards in Australia and Malaysia and subsequently by the Court of Appeal."

Williams chief executive Adam Parr admitted his relief at the outcome and predicted the rival teams would install rear diffusers "within days".

BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen said the team would accept the decision but didn't consider it fully legitimate.

In a statement Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali added: "We are waiting to hear the reasons the ICA rejected the appeal.

"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, and that will take time and money.

"We will now double our efforts to get the team back to the highest level of competitivity."

The judges in Paris heard evidence from both sides, with Ferrari's legal representative, Nigel Tozzi QC, describing Brawn GP team boss Ross Brawn as "a person of supreme arrogance".

Brawn defended himself robustly and insisted his team's diffuser was simply "an innovative approach of an existing idea".