The Honda Motor Co. has congratulated its former Formula One team for winning last Sunday's Australian Grand Prix.

Due to the global financial crisis, the Japanese carmaker announced its complete withdrawal from the sport late last year, handing over to Ross Brawn after a management buyout.

The Brackley based team's efforts last year, however, laid the foundations of the now Brawn GP-branded BGP 001 single seater, which with Mercedes power in Australia qualified and finished in first and second places.

Moreover, the bulk of Brawn's 2009 budget was pledged by Honda to ensure theteam remained a going concern for this season.

Ross Brawn revealed at Albert Park last Saturday that Japanese executives had been in contact with him to applaud his success.

"We are incredibly delighted that our teammates, with whom we worked until last season, have started from extremely difficult circumstances to earn this victory," Honda Motor Co. said in a statement.

It added: "Congratulations to the Brawn GP Formula One team."

Ross Brawn says his 'conscience is clear' regarding his team's controversial diffuser.

In Australia Renault boss Flavio Briatore claimed that Brawn should have alerted his rivals to the grey area in the regulations in his capacity as the head of the technical side of the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA).

But Brawn has revealed that he did suggest a tightening of the rules before starting on the design.

“If I'm frank, I didn't say 'look we're going to do this diffuser, if you don't accept this rule, we're going to do it', because I don't tell people what we're going to do," he said.

"But I did explain that I felt we should have a different set of rules to simplify what needed to be done.

"I offered them, and they were rejected, so my conscience is very clear.



"Those rules that I put on the table would've stopped a lot of things.

“It would've stopped the diffuser, it would have stopped all those barge boards around the front, and it would have cleaned the cars up, because it was clear when we started to work on the regulations that there were things you could do.

"We needed to clean the rules up, but nobody was interested.

"They're interested now..."

Brawn said he had been frustrated by the attacks from his rivals.

"I don't like some of the comments that some of the other team principals are making, but they're uneducated and uninformed," he said.

"If they looked at the facts then they would realise that.

"I've always tried to wear two hats – one that is what's good for Formula 1, and I wear that hat for a certain period, and then I take that off and think about what's good for my team.

"When there's plenty of time, you try and get the rules in the best shape that you can.

"Then when the rules are decided, you have to go flat-out on producing the best car you can within those regulations."

Despite the tensions it has given rise to, Brawn does not think the row over diffusers has damaged FOTA's unity.

"What I am pleased about is that FOTA is still operating well within its mandates," he said.

"As far as I can tell, this has not damaged FOTA.

"We have to learn to work in that way, because when we get on the track there will be instances when we get very upset with each other.

"I'll use the analogy of rugby – you go out on the field and try and kill each other, then you go back and have a beer.

"If the first time we fall out on the track it blows FOTA apart, that's no good – but I don't think that will happen."

The diffuser row will be resolved by an FIA appeal court ruling next Tuesday, with the rest of the field expected to introduce their own alternative designs if Brawn, Williams and Toyota's cars are declared definitively legal.

But Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali thinks it will take a long time before the three teams are caught.

"The potential of that development if you started very early last year is enormous, as we have seen," he said.

"So I'm expecting that even if it's the case that it is considered okay and us and all the other teams start working on that diffuser, we will not find that kind of performance immediately, because it's a matter of the time you need to work with certain pieces."

In a ruling that could have major implications on the outcome of the 2009 World Championship, the International Court of Appeal has ruled that the diffusers of Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams are legal.

The verdict means there will now be a major scramble from the rest of the pack to get their diffusers up to standard.

In a short statement, the FIA declared:

'The FIA International Court of Appeal has decided to deny the appeals submitted against decisions numbered 16 to 24 taken by the Panel of the Stewards on 26 March at the 2009 Grand Prix of Australia and counting towards the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship.

'Based on the arguments heard and evidence before it, the Court has concluded that the Stewards were correct to find that the cars in question comply with the applicable regulations.

'Full reasons for this decision will be provided in due course.'

The ruling means the teams keep the points they have won in the two races so far this season with Brawn GP's Jenson Button leading the Drivers' Championship after two victories.

At the centre of Tuesday debate aired in front of five judges, and with a remarkable 38 other personnel present - either legal counsel, team or FIA representatives - was the legality of the diffuser currently used by Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams.

The device has helped Button win the opening two grands prix of the season in Australia and Malaysia, and with Brawn GP heading the constructors' ahead of Toyota.

Although Ferrari, Renault, Red Bull and BMW Sauber argued fervently against the design, the judges have sided with the FIA and the stewards who had already determined the part was legal.

That has left Brawn GP, along with Toyota and Williams, free to race in this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.