After six hours of deliberations before an appeals court, poor Red Bull team racer Daniel Ricciardo is still disqualified from the Melbourne Grand Prix after the court upheld the FIA’s decision following a breach of the fuel flow rules for the new F1 season.
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The disqualification means that Aussie Ricciardo is stripped of his 18 points from the second place finish.
One of the new rules of the upcoming F1 season is that teams may not exceed the maximum fuel flow of 100kg per hour. Team Red Bull is now under investigation by the FIA for exceeding the amount of fuel to be used in the race on Ricciardo’s F1 car.
The new rules are centred around reducing emissions and relying more on hybrid technologies, and just last week, Infiniti Red Bull posted a video on its YouTube channel explaining how the new rules affect it during a race, with the fuel caveat clearly highlighted. They knew the rules.
According to Reuters, Red Bull argued that it used its own measurement method to determine the fuel use, as sensors on the car couldn’t be relied upon. The FIA disputes this.
Mercedes reportedly asked for Red Bull to be suspended until the end of the season to prevent the team from breaking the rules again, but Red Bull argues that the rules are “only opinions”, not real regulations.
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