FIA Court of Appeal: Mercedes requests suspended exclusion of Red Bull

The hearing before the FIA International Court of Appeal regarding Red Bull’s request to overturn Daniel Ricciardo’s disqualification at the Australian Grand Prix concluded in early afternoon in Paris. Observers from McLaren, Lotus, Williams, and Force India were present, while Mercedes, for its part, intervened as a party to the hearing, reports Crash.net.

As expected and announced, Red Bull based its argument on the fact that the technical directive requiring the use of the flow meter implicated in the case does not have binding force. Therefore, it would not allow FIA stewards to punish Red Bull, even though the team claims it did not wish to challenge the authority of the Federation. On a technical level, the team also highlighted the malfunctions of the sensors used by the FIA in controlling the instantaneous fuel flow, which is limited to 100kg/h.

The team even admitted to initially complying with the request of Fabrice Lom, a FIA official, to reduce the fuel flow entering the engine but, noticing a drop in performance, chose to increase it again. Red Bull relies on the backup measure – related to the injectors, in particular – to assert through Ali Malek, its lawyer, that it did not breach the rule of the maximum allowed fuel flow rate.

The FIA representative, Jonathan Taylor, explained that these directives are guides for teams on how to implement the regulations and that it should not be allowed to ignore them. Why is this important? The sport must be played on an equal footing. It needs an authoritative reference. A team cannot choose measurement methods and when to use them or not.

He even explained that these directives were an old practice that allowed for the proper implementation of regulations. He continued his presentation by stating that everyone follows these rules and if you don’t follow them, there is no competition.

Mercedes, for its part, through its lawyer Paul Harris, described Red Bull’s attitude, which had deliberately chosen to ignore the FIA’s instructions, as a flagrant violation of the FIA’s authority and even called on the Court of Appeal to increase the penalty by requesting a suspended exclusion of the Milton Keynes team from the championship to prevent such a situation from occurring in the future.

« We are, frankly and with great respect, concerned by the fact that Red Bull has shown such blatant and deliberate disregard for these rules that there is a risk they will do it again. We are here to ensure that this does not happen again. We must be on a level playing field for the rest of the season, » pleaded Harris.

The best way to ensure that Red Bull will not violate any other written or oral instructions from the FIA — at least for the remainder of this season — is for this court to recognize the seriousness of their offense and impose a heavier penalty, which is suspension for the rest of the season, so that they are strongly alerted that there is no opportunity for them to cross the line again, he concluded.

A verdict is expected tomorrow morning at the latest, and the details of the judgment by the end of the week.