Malaysia 2009: BMW Lodge Diffuser Protest As Formality

BMW have joined Ferrari, Red Bull Racing and Renault in protesting the diffusers of the Brawn, Toyota and Williams cars. The lodging of the protest is just a formality, as the teams expected (and received) the same answer as they did in Melbourne last weekend. The reason for protesting is just to ensure that the FIA take the Malaysian Grand Prix into consideration during the International Court of Appeal hearing meeting on April 14th, where the offending part on the three cars will be judged.

Of course, what was legal seven days ago will also be legal now, and the FIA stewards rejected the protest. BMW have appealed the decision which now means that both sets of results – Australia and Malaysia – may change should the court deem the double-decker diffuser illegal next week when they meet.

It was just a formal issue in order to make sure that this race is taken into consideration at the appeal, like Melbourne. There is nothing more than that. It is in order to make it clear it is a formal thing and has nothing to do with what goes on on the weekend here. We just want to make sure that at the court of appeal they will decide on both events. Mario Theissen.

Theissen was keen to point out that he is not asking for results to be changed and stated that only the Court of Appeal can decide on that. The BMW boss also pointed out that changing the final result of the Australian Grand Prix wouldn’t help his team in the slightest.

We are not requesting certain decisions or results, we are stating our opinion and putting documentation behind it, and in terms of Melbourne it would not help us anyway. Mario Theissen.

For Kubica, the disqualification of Brawn, Toyota and Williams would have no imapct as the Polish driver failed to finish the race after coming together with Sebastian Vettel.

However, looking at the amended race result from Melbourne, should Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello, Jarno Trulli, Timo Glock, Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima be demoted down the order or disqualified completely, the victory and associated points would be handed to Fernando Alonso, and Nick Heidfeld would be promoted to fifth. Considering BMW are yet to score any points, the four gained from P5 might prove useful later in the year.

And just as a bit of fun, here’s what the finishing order of the Australian Grand Prix would look like should the trio of teams receive penalties that put them outside of the points.

Australia 2009 Potential Race Results		Original Result	Points Earned
1.	Fernando Alonso Renault	5th	10pts
2.	Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso	7th	8pts
3.	Sebastien Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso	8th	6pts
4.	Adrian Sutil Force India	9th	5pts
5.	Nick Heidfeld BMW	10th	4pts
6.	Giancarlo Fisichella Force India	11th	3pts
7.	Mark Webber Red Bull Racing	12th	2pts
8.	Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing	13th DNF	1pt

Robert Kubica would therefore be classified as ninth, having retired just before Sebastian Vettel.