F1: BAR Honda disqualified and suspended

[Deschodt]

Wow... Jenson Button's car was found underweight at Imola and supposedly they have a semi-secret fuel tank used as a ballast of sorts... Net results: They lost their 10 pts from imola (3rd place + sato's points) and are excluded from the next 2 races, with a probation period !

I wonder how Honda is going to take to that... Heads rolling, retiring from F1 altogether ? It's gonna look scarce for the next 2 races !!!

[cstreit]

WOW!

That really suprises me that they would take a risk like that. They actually were making some points and looking good. I hear they spent nearly $190 million on engine development this year with a $400MM budget.... Someones gonna get fired over this...

[Jims5543]

I have always maintained EVERYONE cheats in motorsports. Actually my mechanic drilled this into my head. Except its not called cheating, its called being innovative.... until you get caught.

I am no expert on the rules. So a question. Is there a limit as far as how much fuel capacity you can have? This extra reserve tank held 15 litres of fuel. I imagine it was used for 2 reasons. More range on the track and less weight. Then fill it at the last pit and leave it full for the scales.

[Deschodt]

Well when they were getting weighed the car passed with gas in the tanks, barely. FIA asked them to drain and they did and said "that's it". The FI Asubsequently recovered someting like 10Kg more gas from different "areas" of the tank which they suspect was used as ballast !

Could be negligence, but it does look iffy ;-)

Honda's reaction: "While the International Court of Appeal rejected the FIA's original accusations of fraud and deception, B·A·R Honda says that this penalty is wholly and grossly disproportionate.

"The team is advised by its legal counsel that the judgement is plainly wrong based on the evidence presented and it is currently examining its options."

[Reg]

What I took from it was BAR was asked to drain all remaining fuel after the race. They did but the FIA squeezed another 15L of fuel out. I call that GUILTY of running under the weight specified, don't you?

[Deschodt]

Oh definitely... And on top of that it does appear their fuel tank is designed funny ;-)

[Adam]