Disappointing weekend for Red Bull

Red Bull Racing would have arrived in Australia expecting very little.

Their pre-season winter testing programme was a disaster for the four-time Formula One World Champions.

They suffered with both reliability and performance in all three winter test sessions in Spain and Bahrain and arrived for the opening round of the Formula One World Championship season in damage limitation mode.

However, once free practice began on Friday, it was clear that Red Bull had made a huge recovery.

There were still issues, most notably for Sebastian Vettel as the quadruple Formula One World Champion failed to qualify for Q3 and was forced to watch on as his new-team made Daniel Ricciardo qualified on the front row of the grid.

Vettel’s problems continued during the race and he retired on lap five, however Ricciardo continued to impress at his home Grand Prix and went on to finish second behind the Mercedes 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 is that they do not think that the FIA homologated fuel flow sensor was giving accurate readings during the race weekend.

Sky Sports reporter Rachel Brookes has revealed that Red Bull were: ‘warned during the race that the fuel flow was too high and were given the opportunity to reduce the fuel flow to within the limit. They chose not to.’

She added that this was because Red Bull team boss Christian Horner ‘believed their own readings were correct.’

A statement released by Red Bull Racing has announced their decision to appeal the result: ‘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.’

As the results currently stand, McLaren’s rookie driver Kevin Magnussen has been handed second place, whilst team-mate Jenson Button has been elevated onto the podium for third.