The charges against the teams

21/06/2005
NEWS STORY

The FIA has made available the letter/fax it has sent to the seven Formula One teams that intentionally withdrew from Sunday's United States Grand Prix.

The letter, which has been sent to the team princpals at McLaren, WilliamsF1, Renault, Red Bull, Sauber, Toyota and BAR, reads as follows:

You are hereby requested to appear at the forthcoming meeting of the FIA World Motorsport council, which is to be held in Paris on 29 June 2005 at 09:30 hours to answer charges that, in breach of the above you committed one or more acts prejudicial to the interests of a competition, namely the 2005 United States Grand Prix and/or to the interests of motor sport generally in that you

Failed to ensure that you had a supply of suitable tyres for the race and/or

Wrongfully refused to allow your cars to start the race and/or

Wrongfully refused to allow your cars to race, subject to a speed restriction in one corner, which was safe for such tyres as you had available and/or

Combined with other teams, to make a demonstration damaging to the image of Formula One by pulling into the pits immediately before the start of the race

And that you failed to notify the stewards of your intention not to race, in breach of article 131 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.

A full dossier will be sent to you within 48 hours.

At this hearing you may be assisted by the counsel of your choice.

Should you wish to send us any comments in writing before this meeting, we will make sure that they are circulated to the members of the World Motor Sport Council.

Yours faithfully

Pierre de Coninck
Secretary General FIA (Sport)