14/04/2014
NEWS STORY
The General Secretary of the FIA's International Court of Appeal says a verdict on Red Bull's appeal against Daniel Riccardo's disqualification from the Australian Grand Prix will be given on Tuesday.
"We will announce the decision tomorrow morning at the latest," said Jean-Christophe Breillat at the end today's six-hour hearing at the FIA's headquarters in Paris.
He subsequently confirmed that a full explanation of the reasoning behind the decision will be published "by the end of the week".
One of the most vocal during today's hearing was Paul Harris, who was acting for Mercedes. He accused the Austrian team of "knowingly and repeatedly" ignoring Fabrice Lom's instructions to turn down the fuel flow on Ricciardo's engine because it did not want to slow its Australian driver.
Dismissing Red Bull's claims that the FIA's approved sensors were unreliable he argued that the Austrian team's alternative system by which it measured the flow was itself not "100 per cent" accurate, whereas the official sensors are "rigorously tested and rigorously calibrated."
"Red Bull thinks it is entitled to pick and choose between the measurements," he claimed.
"We are concerned that Red Bull have shown such a flagrant and deliberate disregard for these rules that there is a real risk they will do it again. We are here to seek to ensure that that does not happen, we must have a level playing field going forward for the remainder of the season.
"We apprehend that the other teams represented here today take the same view, which is why they are here today. We respectfully submit that the most effective way to ensure that Red Bull do not flout further instructions from the FIA is for this court to recognise the severity of their infringement and to impose a further sanction upon them which is to be suspended for the rest of the season, so that they are acutely aware."
Chris Balfe