Bar told put brakes on legal action

Alastair Moffitt

BAR were yesterday banned for the Spanish and Monaco grands prix, as well as being excluded from the San Marino results and handed a six-month suspended ban, after the FIA’s international court of appeal found them guilty of breaking the rules.

Button’s car was found to be underweight when a secondary fuel tank was drained after the Imola race, although BAR insist they never competed illegally.

BAR chief executive Nick Fry intends to fight the decision but Ecclestone claims any move to take the case to a civil court would not be wise.

The Englishman, who owns the commercial rights to Formula One, agrees with FIA president Max Mosley that BAR’s punishment was “lenient.”

He said: “I thought it was a very fair thing to do to be honest. I feel they got off quite lightly.”

But asked about the threat of BAR heading to a civil court, Ecclestone added: “I think they’d be silly to do that. I think it would be bad for them.

“Other people might think they admitted they infringed the regulations. Anyone else is going to say they were warned at the start of the championship, they decided to ignore it.

“I wouldn’t want to go to a civil court personally, I think it’s a big risk.”

World governing body the FIA had asked for the team to be kicked out of the Formula One for the rest of the season but their appeal court rejected accusations of fraud.

Mosley said: “The facts in this case are very clear. The team was asked to pump the fuel out of their car. They left 15 litres in the tank and told us it was empty.

“Under the circum- stances, we feel they have been treated rather leniently.”

But Button’s fellow drivers confessed their surprise at the news, with McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya casting doubt

on allegations that BAR deliberately cheated and admitting he was surprised by the scale of the punishment.

He said: “I find it a bit surprising that they would cheat to be honest. I was shocked actually that they put them out of the races but that’s the way it goes I guess.”

Fernando Alonso confessed his sympathy for the Englishman, whose battling drive to third will now count for nothing. But the world championship leader has little sympathy for BAR, saying: “I think we all agree there are rules for all the teams and if you are not inside them all you risk a penalty. The amount of the penalty is not up to us. I am totally happy.

Meanwhile, world championship leader Fernando Alonso claims Ferrari are not playing fair this season.

Alonso goes into this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix leading leads the title

race by 18 points but is facing an increased threat from Ferrari’s reigning world champion Michael Schumacher. Alonso just held off Schumacher at Imola two weeks’ ago despite the world champion’s superior pace, which came as a result of massive testing from Ferrari. The Italian team have shunned an agreement to limit testing this season, prompting fierce criticism from their rivals who accepted a 30-day restriction.

Alonso feels that Ferrari’s recent resurgence has a hollow ring to it.

He said: “I think we have all said Ferrari are testing more than the other.

“I think we all know that all the teams agreed to do limited days of testing and there is only one that has many more.

“They are allowed to because anyone can do what they want but I think it is against the spirit of the sport of Formula One and against the future of all of us.

“It is not fair play, it is against the spirit of Formula One as a sport,” he said.