Red Bull Racing lose Daniel Ricciardo disqualification appeal

Red Bull Racing have failed in their appeal against Daniel Ricciardo’s exclusion from the race result of the Australian Grand Prix.

The Australian driver was disqualified after finishing in second place at the season-opening event when stewards found the Red Bull driver’s car had “consistently” exceeded fuel flow regulations.

The team appealed the disqualification claiming that the FIA-homologated sensors used to monitor fuel flow were faulty and that it was correct to apply it’s own fuel flow model.

However, following yesterday’s six-hour hearing at the FIA’s Paris headquarters, the five-man panel of judges upheld the decision to exclude Ricciardo from the race result.

A statement released by the ICA said: “The Court, after having heard the parties and examined their submissions, decided to uphold the Decision N°56 of the Stewards by which they decided to exclude Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s car N°3 from the results of the 2014 Australian Grand Prix.”

Following the ruling Red Bull Racing responded by saying: “Infiniti Red Bull Racing accepts the ruling of the International Court of Appeal today. We are of course disappointed by the outcome and would not have appealed if we didn’t think we had a very strong case. We always believed we adhered to the technical regulations throughout the 2014 Australian Grand Prix. We are sorry for Daniel (Ricciardo) that he will not be awarded the 18 points from the event, which we think he deserved. We will continue to work very hard to amass as many points as possible for the team, Daniel and Sebastian (Vettel) throughout the season.

“We will now move on from this and concentrate on this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.”

A full explanation of the grounds for the court’s dismissal of Red Bull’s appeal is due to be published later this week.