Despite having previously said that it is its intention to have the rules clarified, and for them to be consistently applied, McLaren is now asking for Lewis Hamilton to be awarded the appropriate points, thereby giving him the championship title.

With the result of the appeal yet to be decided, McLaren's lawyer, Ian Mill, has called on the appeal judges to look at the case on its own merits and not in terms of the World Championship title.

Mr Mill argues that the teams (BMW and Williams (and their drivers should be punished, despite calling for its own drivers to be separated from the issue when it was facing expulsion from the championship following its role in the spy saga.

"The principle is clear," said Mill. "If there was a breach, it was performance-enhancing. The sanction, I'm afraid, has to be disqualification. I ask you to address this as though it was any team at any stage of the season. Whenever in the past there has been a disqualification, there has been a re-classification. All we ask you to do is what normally happens."

"The driver may be entirely innocent," Mill continued, "but he has the benefit of the infringing car. It must be right that if the team is disqualified, the driver loses the points as well. In the other case, the drivers were offered immunity if they assisted the FIA."