Whilst many believe the FIA has an "open and shut case", in terms of Daniel Ricciardo's disqualification from the Australian Grand Prix, team boss Christian Horner is equally confident.

"We are appealing on the grounds that we do not believe, we are extremely confident, that we have not broken the rules, that we haven't exceeded the 100kg/h of fuel that is permitted to be utilised by the car and the engine," he told Sky Sports News. "That was the reason for our appeal, we feel we have a strong case and it will be down to the appeal court to ultimately decide."

Speaking a day after team owner Dietrich Mateschitz, expressed unease with the direction the sport is taking and admitting that he could walk away from the sport, Horner revealed that his team's appeal with hinge on the wording of the regulations. While the Technical Regulations state that "fuel mass flow must not exceed 100kg/h" they do not state that the reading has to come from the FIA's own sensor.

"Our whole case is on the fact of which reading is correct," said Horner. "We have a sensor that is drifting and isn't reading correctly versus a fuel rail that we know is calibrated and we know that hasn't varied throughout the weekend and has subsequently been checked and found to be not faulty and hasn't moved or varied at all since it was installed on the car prior to the weekend.

"Our argument is very simple, that we haven't broken the Technical Regulations," he continued. "That we haven't exceeded the fuel flow limit and that the sensor, which hopefully we will be able to demonstrate in the appeal, is erroneous.

"I think the problem with the Technical Directive is that as we have seen in the Pirelli tyre case or the double diffuser days, that the directive, as it now states on the bottom of the directive, is the opinion of the Technical Delegate it is not a regulation, it is not regulatory, it is purely an opinion.

"We are bound by the Technical and Sporting Regulations and 5.1.4 of the Technical Regulations says you must not exceed 100kg/h of fuel usage... we haven't done that," he insisted. "Therefore our view is we haven't broken the regulations and Technical Directives are of non-regulatory value."

With two races before the appeal is heard in Paris, Horner didn't deny that it could continue using its own system in both of them, a move which will will not be missed by those rival teams who - whilst admitting problems with the FIA's system - are not happy with the route Red Bull has taken.

"Hopefully we will have a sensor that works and works in line with the fuel rail and there isn't this discrepancy," he said. "Fundamentally that is the most important thing and if there is a variance or a drift it is something that we will obviously have to discuss with the FIA and we probably won't be alone in that."

Chris Balfe

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Awkwardboy, 26/03/2014 7:12

"If the race results are going to be determined in a court then perhaps the case could be televised (like the uk supreme court is), who knows it might be more exciting than the race event. "

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2. Posted by GoodPublicity, 25/03/2014 22:58

"Challenges would be less likely if the FIA employed a corporate communication expert to ensure that the rules were unambiguous."

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Horner confident of appeal success

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