Red Bull Racing, Ferrari and Renault have made an official protest about the legality of Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams´ rear diffuser arrangement, it has emerged this morning.
The offending three, whose cars were passed as legal by race stewards at pre-event scrutineering earlier today (local time), then became the subject of the official protest from Red Bull, Ferrari and Renault. It is thought that BMW Sauber also intended to protest, but that administrative delays prevented them.
“This is a sporting and competitive issue, it’s nothing personal against the teams,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner is quoted as saying by Fox Sports Australia.
The controversial diffuser arrangement the three teams have is thought to give them a performance advantage of half a second per lap, as it increases the level of downforce over the rear wing. But Red Bull have been saying since last week that they believe the design is outside of the regulations governing the height of the bodywork.
“It’s illegal,” Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko said rather candidly yesterday.
The most likely outcome is that the International Court of the FIA will not rule on the legality or otherwise until next month, meaning that all points won by the three teams in question would be of a provisional nature.
