Alonso - Title in court's hands

Last updated: 14th April 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Alonso - Title in court's hands

Alonso: 'Complicated issue'

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Fernando Alonso believes the fate of the Formula One World Championship could be decided in a Paris court on Tuesday.

Alonso's Renault team, along with Ferrari, Red Bull and Sauber, have challenged Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota over the conceptual design of the diffuser - a body part that aids performance.

The three teams have had a clear performance advantage in the first two grands prix of the season in Australia and Malaysia, and will face an International Court of Appeal hearing over the matter.

If the judges deem the part is illegal, they could overturn the two results and potentially expunge Jenson Button's two victories from the record books.

Unreachable

But Alonso says that of the diffuser is cleared as legal then the other seven teams will struggle to challenge for the drivers' or constructors' titles.

"We'll have to see what they (the judges) decide," said Alonso. "It's a complicated issue, but the championship could be more or less decided.

"If the diffusers are legal, the Brawns are going to be nearly unreachable for any other team."

The problem for the others teams is that a re-designed diffuser would have a huge effect on the car, and would take too long to incorporate.

"You have to work on the whole car," Alonso explained. "It's not just about adding the diffuser and suddenly the car is a second quicker.

"The diffuser makes you go fast if you have a new front end, new sidepods, a new engine cover.

"You have to rebuild the whole car, and that would take a lot of months."

It is a difficult case for the judges to preside over as the FIA and the stewards in Melbourne and Sepang have already deemed the part is legal.

The four offended teams protested the stewards' ruling, and it is now up to the ICA to determine whether the stewards in question were correct in their assessment or not.

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