Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli have been sent to the back of the grid for the Australian Grand Prix after Toyota were found to be in breach of the regulations surrounding flexible wings.
Glock and Trulli qualified sixth and eighth for Sunday’s race, but FIA race stewards inspected their cars after the session and found the rear wing on the Toyota to be in breach of the rules.
Flexible or moveable wings are currently banned in Formula One under article 3.15 of the technical regulations.
The FIA said in a statement: “The Stewards have received a report from the Technical Delegate that the upper rear wing elements of cars No. 9 and 10 are showing extreme flexibility in contravention of Article 3.15 of the 2009 Formula One Technical Regulations.
“The Stewards have heard the explanation from a representative of Panasonic Toyota Racing and have examined the cars in question.
“The Stewards concur with the opinion of the Technical Delegate and find the cars contravene the requirements of Article 3.15 of the 2009 Formula One Technical Regulations.
“It is the Stewards decision that cars number 9 and 10 be excluded from the Qualifying Session Official Classification.”
Toyota confirmed that they accepted the finding and would not be appealing the decision.
The team said in a statement: “Toyota Motorsport has been informed that the rear wing of the TF109 has been found to demonstrate “extreme flexibility” by the Australian Grand Prix stewards.”
“The design has passed our own internal test procedures which are designed to reproduce twice the proscribed official load tests. In light of this decision it is clear we must review these procedures to ensure there is no repeat of this situation and we will also review our production processes to ensure there is no variation between parts.
“We naturally accept and respect the decision of the race stewards.
“We intend to modify the components overnight and we are confident these modifications will not result in any performance drop.”
