Date set for Red Bull’s appeal

Appeal date set for Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo’s Australian disqualification.

During his home Grand Prix in his first race for Red Bull Racing Daniel Ricciardo impressed all weekend. He out-qualified his quadruple world champ team-mate and went on to finish second behind the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg.

But, five hours after the chequered flag had flown, Ricciardo was disqualified from the race.

Red Bull Racing were found to be in breach of Article 5.1.4 of the Formula 1 Technical Regulations, which states that, ‘Fuel mass flow must not exceed 100kg/h’.

Part of the new generation of Formula One regulations is to push technology in terms of fuel saving measures, so that F1 is still at the forefront of modern day technology.

All these new power-trains with hybrid engines and energy recovery systems, are things that will develop in some form or another into the road cars of the future.

So the new regulations were always going to be stringent and the FIA had warned that there would be no leniency in regards to breaking this rule.

‘All cars will be fitted with an FIA homologated fuel flow sensor. That won’t limit the flow, it will just monitor the flow. 100 kilos per hour is the maximum and I’m sure at most times they’ll be quite close to that whenever they can be,’ FIA’s Race Director Charlie Whiting said ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.

‘The other element is the amount of fuel cars use during the race, which is 100 kilos from when the lights go out at the start of the race to when they cross the finish line at the end of the race.

‘The 100 kilos is a maximum, so if they go over they exceed the limit and there is no tolerance.’

The problem for Red Bull however was that they did not think that the FIA homologated fuel flow sensor was giving accurate readings during the race weekend and despite being warned during the race that the fuel flow was too high by the FIA and given the opportunity to reduce the fuel flow to within the limit, they opted not too.

A statement released by Red Bull Racing after the race read: ‘the Team has notified the FIA of its intention to appeal with immediate effect.

‘Inconsistencies with the FIA fuel flow meter have been prevalent all weekend up and down the pit lane. The Team and Renault are confident the fuel supplied to the engine is in full compliance with the regulations.’

But without the support of the FIA’s Charlie Whiting, it would seem that they do not stand much hope of getting the decision reversed when it is heard at the International Court of Appeal in Paris on April 14.

‘We advised them twice after qualifying and five laps into the race to take the necessary steps to comply with the regulations,’ Whiting told The Times.

‘They chose to use their own calculations to show they complied. If they had followed the advice we gave them at the time, we would not have had a problem and they would not have been penalised.

‘If their sensor was kaput, then things would have been different. It is a human thing because they have the ability to do was needed to comply.’