McLaren filed an appeal hoping to get four drivers disqualified from last weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix and give the Formula One title to British rookie Lewis Hamilton.
The four drivers were investigated for fuel irregularities following Sunday’s race, but governing body FIA said several hours later there wasn’t enough evidence to penalise them.
Hamilton, who had been leading the drivers’ standigs before the final race of the season, finished seventh and wound up in second place overall, one point behind Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. Three of the four drivers that were investigated finished ahead of Hamilton. If two of them were disqualified, Hamilton would move up and claim the title ahead of Raikkonen. McLaren took its case on Tuesday to FIA’s International Court of Appeal.
“The team wishes to win races and championships on the track. However, if there has been an irregularity, which is not the fault of the team, we feel that the matter must be properly examined to ensure that the rules are applied,” McLaren said in a statement.
The fuel temperatures on the cars of fourth-place Nico Rosberg, fifth-place Robert Kubica, sixth-place Nick Heidfeld and 10th-place Kazuki Nakajima were as much as 14 degrees Celsius below the air temperature, FIA said.
Fine halved
Meanwhile, McLaren will have to pay over $50 million to the FIA, which will use the money to promote safer motorsport worldwide, F-1 governing body said on Wednesday. “Following the judgement of the World Motor Sport Council on 13 September (when McLaren was fined), a sum in excess of $50 million will be paid in December to the FIA,” the body said in a statement.
“This will be used to establish the FIA Development Fund, which will assist the work of National Sporting Authorities in promoting the development of safer motor sport worldwide, especially in countries where the motor sport infrastructure is in need of support,” the statement read.
The money represents a fine handed to McLaren in September as a result of a spying controversy. The FIA had imposed on McLaren a $100 million fine and the loss of their constructors' points. The body then said the size of the fine could be halved ultimately.
