Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota have been given the go-ahead to take part in the Australian Grand Prix after the FIA stewards rejected a protest against the design of their diffusers late on Thursday night.

Following more than four hours of presentations and discussions between the stewards and the various teams involved in the dispute, the FIA issued a statement confirming that the stewards believe the cars are legal.

Ferrari, Renault and Red Bull Racing had lodged protests against their rivals because they believed the designs of their diffusers were illegal. BMW Sauber had also been due to join the protest, but their complaint was rejected on a technicality after it was not correctly submitted in time.

The teams, however, have confirmed they will appeal against the stewards' decision, which will force the matter to go to a hearing of the FIA's International Court of Appeal.

Such a meeting cannot take place until after the Malaysian Grand Prix, meaning that Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota will unofficially be racing under appeal at this weekend's race in Australia and would likely be subject to another appeal at Sepang.

The Formula One Teams' Association has issued a statement clarifying their position in reference to outstanding payments owed by F1's commercial rights holder CVC to the teams from the last three seasons.

Reports from various media outlets this week suggested that Flavio Briatore, Ron Dennis and John Howett issued an ultimatum to FOM chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, demanding the outstanding payments immediately otherwise their Renault, Mclaren and Toyota teams respectively would consider a boycott.

The text in full:
FOTA wish to clarify the situation regarding remarks that have been widely reported in the last few days concerning a meeting between members of FOTA and the Commercial Rights Holder.

The meeting, which took place in London on March 18th, involved John Howett, the Vice Chairman of FOTA, Flavio Briatore in hiscapacity as chairman of the Commercial Working Group of FOTA and Ron Dennis as a member of the Executive Committee of FOTA as well as Bernie Ecclestone, the Commercial Rights Holder. The FOTA representatives presented the unified views of all FOTA members.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss payment of money owed by CVC (the effective owners of the commercial rights to Formula One) to the teams and relates to agreed sums owing from the 2006, 2007 and 2008 championship years.

FOTA are committed to accelerate the signing of the new Concorde Agreement and, as part of the conditions necessary to obtain the signatures of all the teams, it was necessary to reach a conclusion to this outstanding matter.

During the discussions, any position stated by the members of FOTA who were present was supported by all members.

F1 Chief Bernie Ecclestone has some advice for his teams: "If they come in here with a gun and hold it to my head, they had better be sure they can fucking pull the trigger."

The threat came in response to a threat from Renault and McLaren, who vowed not to send their cars to the Australian Grand Prix if Bernie didn't cough up some money the two teams said they were owed. In response, Ecclestone pulled out the big gun and called up the freight companies to cancel the shipments.

Said Ecclestone: "So I said what I'd better do is cancel the aircraft obviously. It costs a fortune to charter those things and almost as much to cancel them."

The cars were shipped and it appears the teams blinked first as few believe Ecclestone coughed up the funds. This is just more proof that what happens behind the scenes in F1 is going to continue to generate more press than what actually happens on the track so long as Herr Mosley and Bernie remain in charge.

http://jalopnik.com/5182194/bernie-e...s-tony-soprano

Weightings:
1. Jenson Button 664.5kg
2. Rubens Barrichello 666.5kg
3. Sebastien Vettel 657kg
4. Robert Kubica 650kg
5. Nico Rosberg 657kg
6. Felipe Massa 654kg
7. Kimi Raikkonen 655.5kg
8. Mark Webber 662kg
9. Nick Heidfeld 691.5kg
10. Fernando Alonso 680.7kg
11. Kazuki Nakajima 680.5kg
12. Heikki Kovalainen 690.6kg
13. Sebastien Buemi 675.5kg
14. Nelson Piquet 694.1kg
15. Giancarlo Fisichella 689kg
16. Adrian Sutil 684.5kg
17. Sebastien Bourdais 662.5kg
18. Lewis Hamilton 655kg
19. Jarno Trulli 660kg
20. Timo Glock 670kg

The Formula 1 teams continue to try to find the limits of the new regulations with Williams protesting Ferrari and Red Bull over their aerodynamic packages in Melbourne. The protest is being held at the moment and hopefully there will be answers before long.

The Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock have been stripped of their qualifying positions and will start the Australian GP from the back of the grid after being found guilty of a technical infringement.

Around three hours after Glock and Trulli finished qualifying in sixth and eighth positions respectively, the stewards deemed both cars to have broken the rules and excluded their times. The news is of the particular benefit to the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen who will now start the race from sixth and seventh.

The Toyotas were excluded from qualifying by race stewards following a report given to them by technical delegate Jo Bauer. Bauer noted the upper rear wing element of their cars was showing extreme flexibility in contravention of the technical regulations.

The rules specifically stipulate cars are not allowed flexible body parts as they offer a distinct advantage, and as such are illegal.

The stewards - Radovan Novak, Olafur Gudmundsson and Steve Chopping - ultimately concurred with Bauer after an inspection of the cars and following a hearing with Toyota representatives.

"The Stewards have received a report from the Technical Delegate that the upper rear wing elements of cars No. 9 and 10 are showing extreme flexibility in contravention of Article 3.15 of the 2009 Formula One Technical Regulations," a FIA statement read.

"The Stewards concur with the opinion of the Technical Delegate and find the cars contravene the requirements of Article 3.15 of the 2009 Formula One Technical Regulations.

"It is the Stewards decision that cars number 9 and 10 be excluded from the Qualifying Session Official Classification."

The FIA Stewards have ruled that Lewis Hamilton and McLaren "acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the Stewards" in Melbourne. They have been excluded from the results and the classification amended accordingly. Jarno Trulli has been reinstated in third place.

The FIA Stewards were reconvened in Kuala Lumpur with African delegate Surinder Thatti replacing Czech Radovan Novak. They heard new evidence, believed to be radio conversations between the team and Hamilton which showed that he gave the place back to Trulli deliberately. Hamilton is understood to have told the stewards in Melbourne that this was not the case.

This means that Trulli gets six points and is third in the Drivers' World Championship, while Toyota gets 11 points and moves to second in the Constructors' Championship.

This is embarrassing for McLaren but very good fortune for Toyota. The team had both cars sent to the back of the grid in Australia for having run illegal rear wings in qualifying. One could argue that this was a rather lenient punishment for such a serious offence...