Horner adamant that Ricciardo's car was legal

By on Sunday, March 16, 2014
Red Bull/Getty Images

Red Bull/Getty Images

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says that Daniel Ricciardo's car did not contravene regulations during the Australian Grand Prix.

Ricciardo finished the race in second place but was excluded from the results after it was discovered that his car had not conformed to the 100kg/hr fuel flow limit.

Red Bull immediately confirmed that they will appeal the decision and Horner says that Red Bull used their own measuring methods after not trusting the FIA's sensors.

"Extremely disappointed, quite surprised and we will of course appeal," said Horner of the exclusion. "And hopefully through the appeal process, it will be quite clear the car has conformed at all times with the regulations. These fuel flow sensors that have been fitted by the FIA to measure fuel - which have proved problematic throughout the pit lane since their introduction at the start of testing - there's been discrepancies in them and they've been unreliable.

"We had an issue with the sensor that changed its reading through Friday practice. That sensor was then replaced for another sensor on Saturday which then failed during qualifying.

"We were then asked to put the sensor from Friday back into the car and apply an offset. That offset, we didn't feel was correct and as we got into the race, we could see there was a significant discrepancy between what the sensor was reading and where our fuel flow - which is the actual injection of fuel into the engine - was stated as.

"I think it's common knowledge that there's been problems with these sensors all year. I think during the race, there's other teams that have had sensors fail. It's immature technology and it's impossible to rely 100 per cent on that sensor, which has proved to be problematic in almost every session that we've run in."

Horner is confident that Red Bull will overturn the decision of the stewards.

"We wouldn't be appealing if we didn't feel confident we could have a dependable case. It's just extremely disappointing that this has happened. It's certainly no fault of Daniel's; I don't believe it's the fault of the team's. I believe we've complied with the rules and the investigation documents will be submitted within the appeal."


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