Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) Red Bull Racing RB10 finished second. Formula One World Championship, Rd1, Australian Grand Prix, Race, Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, 16 March 2014. © Sutton Images
Following Monday’s sitting in Paris in which it heard evidence from all parties, the International Court of Appeal decided to uphold the decision of the Melbourne stewards. Red Bull have accepted the Court's verdict, full details of which will be published by the FIA later this week.
Red Bull chose to rely on their own fuel calculations at Albert Park, after experiencing what they termed ‘inconsistencies’ with the FIA-approved flow meter, but insisted they could prove they never exceeded the 100kg per hour limit.
The FIA - Formula One racing’s governing body - countered that allowances had been made for any such ‘inconsistencies’ and that using alternative calculation methods without its express permission was in itself also a breach of the regulations.
Accepting the Court’s ruling, Red Bull said: “We are of course disappointed by the outcome and would not have appealed if we didn’t think we had a very strong case.
"We always believed we adhered to the technical regulations throughout the 2014 Australian Grand Prix. We are sorry for Daniel that he will not be awarded the 18 points from the event, which we think he deserved. We will continue to work very hard to amass as many points as possible for the team, Daniel and Sebastian (Vettel) throughout the season.
“We will now move on from this and concentrate on this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.”
Below is the Court’s official statement, as released by the FIA on Tuesday.
Decision of the International Court of Appeal
The Court, after having heard the parties and examined their submissions, decided to uphold the Decision N°56 of the Stewards by which they decided to exclude Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s car N°3 from the results of the 2014 Australian Grand Prix.
The International Court of Appeal was presided over by Mr Harry DUIJM (Netherlands), and included Mr Rui BOTICA SANTOS (Portugal), Mr Philippe NARMINO (Monaco), Mr Antonio RIGOZZI (Switzerland) and Mr Jan STOVICEK (Czech Republic).
The full decision will be available on the website by the end of the week.