McLaren-Mercedes' reaction to the Court of Appeal ruling

In a statement made public a few hours after the ruling was made official, McLaren-Mercedes expressed its position on the judgment of "non-admissibility" of the appeal procedure presented by the team, which directed the last act of the 2007 season to favor of Ferrari and Raikkonen. In essence, the procedural quibble that allowed the International Court of Appeal to reject the appeal is not recognized by McLaren-Mercedes as legitimate and furthermore, the Anglo-German team declares that it is still waiting for clarification on the rules regarding temperatures of fuels.

This is the full text of the McLaren-Mercedes press release:

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The FIA ​​International Court of Appeal has considered inadmissible the appeal of McLaren-Mercedes against the decision of the race commissioners present in Brazil regarding the irregularity concerning the petrol of Williams and BMW-Sauber. As was stated long before the appeal, the team was simply trying to clarify the regulatory uncertainty resulting from the FIA ​​stewards' decision at Interlagos. After the race, both Williams cars and both BMW-Sauber cars were discovered by the FIA ​​technical delegate to have used fuel cooled beyond the limit of 10 degrees compared to the ambient temperature. Despite the feedback from the FIA ​​technical delegate, the stewards decided that it would be inappropriate to apply a sanction to Williams and BMW-Sauber, due to a "sufficiently large doubt about the real temperature of the fuel on board the car and the real ambient temperature". .

Despite the fact that FIA Commissioner Tony Scott Andrews accepted McLaren's complaint when it was presented to him in the Interlagos paddock just after the race, the FIA ​​International Court of Appeal ruled that the appeal was inadmissible. . All this, despite the commissioners having decreed the official result of the race subject to appeal.

MARTIN WHITMARSH:
“In the interest of clarification of the rules we have filed our appeal. We have not yet seen the text of the decision of the FIA ​​International Court of Appeal, which we hope contains this clarification. It is important to underline that the investigation by the FIA ​​Grand Prix stewards was not prompted by any action on the part of McLaren, but by a report drawn up and made public by the FIA ​​technical delegate, which attracted the attention of the stewards of competition. Our appeal was only a logical and procedural step in the process that began with the technical delegate's written report. We hope that the fuel temperature issue will not remain unresolved ahead of next year, and we look forward to cooperating with the FIA ​​and other teams on these matters to ensure similar situations do not happen again."

LEWIS HAMILTON:
“As I said from the start, Kimi deserved to win the 2007 title and neither I, nor anyone else at McLaren Mercedes, ever wanted to deprive him of it in court. That was not the purpose of the team's appeal. I'm looking forward to the 2008 season and racing with Kimi and all my other rivals. My hope is to do better than the second place I achieved in this year's drivers' championship."

(d.07)