Formula 1 protest fails

A protest to try and stop Toyota, Williams and the fresh-face Brawn GP teams from racing this weekend has been overthrown. Rival teams – including Ferrari and Renault – had claimed that their opponents had failed to follow new regulations when designing their diffuser.

A six-hour hearing has seen the stewards for Sunday’s race in Melbourne reject the argument, although an appeal is nigh on certain. That means that if any of the teams with a controversial diffuser pick up points or a podium placing at the weekend, the result – and their achievements – will be under appeal, too.

That’ll be a bit of a worry for Brawn GP and Jenson Button, the latter an unlikely bookies favourite to take the chequered flag in Australia. His last – and only – F1 win came nearly three years ago in Hungary, and from 155 races he has enjoyed 15 podiums, but the blistering pace that Button and Brawn have set has taken many by surprise, and ruffled a few of the sport’s established feathers.

‘They will disappear on the basis of what we have seen in testing,’ said Williams boss Sir Frank Williams. ‘I just hope we can be up there, too. They are making the rest of us look like amateurs.’

Williams, along with Brawn and Toyota, had no back up plan should their diffuser have been outlawed by the stewards today, believing it to be completely above board. Toyota has said it consulted the FIA’s technical department and got was satisfied with the verification it received.

The sooner a line is drawn under the issue and the season can get underway free of controversy, the better.

In other news, David Coulthard has been named as Red Bull’s reserve driver should Mark Webber or Sebastian Vettel face injury or problems. Webber, of course, is just completing the road to recovery having broken his leg during the winter break. DC behind the wheel of an F1 car again? Don’t bet against it…