ZUMA Press Inc
(2009-04-16 10:14:23)
Ross Brawn hailed Wednesday's FIA verdict confirming the legality of the diffuser used on the car which has helped lift Jenson Button to the top of the driver's championship.
The Brawn GP team principal, speaking after Formula One's ruling body rejected a Ferrari-led protest against the device, said: "We are pleased with the decision reached by the International Court of Appeal today.
"We respect the right of our competitors to query any design or concept used on our cars through the channels available to them.
"The FIA Technical Department, the Stewards at the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix and now five judges at the International Court of Appeal have confirmed our belief that our cars have always strictly complied with the 2009 Technical Regulations."
Wednesday's verdict confirms Brawn GP driver Button at the top of the driver's standings on 15 points after wins in the season-opening races in Australia and Malaysia ahead of Sunday's third-leg in China.
Brawn added: "The decision of the International Court of Appeal brings this matter to its conclusion and we look forward to continuing on the track the challenge of what has been a very exciting start to the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship."
The controversial diffuser was also fitted to the cars of the Williams and Toyota teams, and Toyota said they had always been confident of the outcome going in their favour.
"As we have maintained throughout, our team studied the wording of the new 2009 regulations in precise detail to ensure we interpreted them correctly," a statement from the Japanese team said.
It went on: "We also made full use of the consultation procedure with the FIA which was a helpful process to ensure our interpretation of the technical regulations was correct.
"Therefore we had every confidence that the design of our car would be confirmed as legal, firstly by race stewards in Australia and Malaysia and subsequently by the Court of Appeal."
Toyota chairman and team principal Tadashi Yamashina added: "I was confident the Court of Appeal would reach this verdict and I am satisfied with it.
"This has been a challenging period for Formula One and I am pleased this issue is now in the past and we can focus on an exciting season on the track."
Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali bemoaned the decision that now forces his team into a re-design of the car.
"We are waiting to hear the reasons the ICA rejected the appeal," said Domenicali, with an announcement due either later this week or early next.
"Unfortunately this decision forces us to intervene on fundamental areas of the car's design in order to be able to compete on an equal footing with some of the teams from a point of view of the technical regulations, and that will take time and money.
"We will now double our efforts to get the team back to the highest level of competitiveness."
Copyright 2009 AFP Global Edition
