After the Court of Appeal rejected McLaren s appeal against fuel irregularities in the last race of the 2007 season, several teams are calling for rule clarifications.
BMW Motorsport boss Mario Theissen was pleased with the ruling from the Court of Appeal however he believes that the rules regarding fuel need to be further clarified. “It has become quite clear that the regulations state a very precise difference of temperature of 10 degrees but they do not define precisely how and when the two reference points are taken,” he explained.
“That is the issue and in my view it should not have gone to the Court of Appeal but to the Technical Working Group in order for the technical directors to come up with a clear regulation on how to do it in the future.”
Article 6.5.5 of the Formula One technical rules state that, No fuel on board the car may be more than 10 degrees centigrade below ambient temperature.
McLaren are also hoping to have the rules clarified. CEO Martin Whitmarsh explained, “In the interests of rule clarification and rule consistency we lodged our appeal. We have not yet seen the text of the FIA International Court of Appeal decision and hope that clarification is provided.
“It’s important to stress that the FIA Stewards’ inquiry at the Brazilian Grand Prix was not triggered by any action from McLaren, but by a report written and made public by the FIA Technical Delegate, which drew the FIA Stewards’ attention to what we regarded as a clear regulation breach on the part of BMW-Sauber and Williams.
“Our appeal was merely a logical and procedural step in the process begun by the FIA Technical Delegate’s written report. We hope that this fuel temperature issue does not remain unresolved in Formula One next year, but we look forward to working with the FIA and the teams on clarifying matters to avoid a similar situation occurring again.”
