McLaren & Lewis Hamilton Lose the Appeal against the Belgian Row

McLaren's appeal against Lewis Hamilton's 25-second penalty at the Belgian Grand Prix has been rejected.

Hamilton strongly pressed his case at Monday's appeal to the FIA in Paris as he aimed to overturn his punishment for cutting a chicane at Spa.

The 23-year-old was demoted into third, with Felipe Massa handed the victory.

The five judges ruled that the appeal was inadmissible and so Hamilton's four-point deduction stands, leaving him one point clear in the title race.

If successful, Hamilton would have seen his lead increase over Ferrari's Massa to seven points.

However, has the appeal been heard it is possible the penalty against Hamilton could have increased.

"Article 152 of the International Sporting Code states that drive-through penalties are 'not susceptible to appeal'," the FIA said in a statement.

"Having heard the explanations of the parties, the court has concluded that the appeal is inadmissible."

And after Tuesday's verdict, Hamilton said: "People will probably expect me to be depressed about today's result, but that isn't me.

"All I want to do now is put this matter behind me and get on with what we drivers do best: racing each other.

"We're racers, we're naturally competitive and we love to overtake. Overtaking is difficult, and it feels great when you manage to pull off a great passing manoeuvre.

"If it pleases the spectators and TV viewers, it's better still. So I'm disappointed, yes, but not depressed."

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren's chief operating officer, added: "We are naturally disappointed with today's verdict, and to have received no ruling on the substance of our appeal.

"No-one wants to win Grands Prix in court; but we felt that Lewis had won the Belgian Grand Prix, on track, in an exciting and impressive manner.

"Our legal team and witnesses calmly explained this, as well as our belief that the appeal should be admissible, to the FIA International Court of Appeal.

"It nonetheless decided that our appeal was inadmissible. We will now concentrate on the remaining four races of the 2008 Formula 1 season."

The appeal court judges were faced with two decisions.

They first had to consider whether McLaren's appeal was admissible, as Formula One rules do not allow teams to appeal against drive-through penalties.

The penalty given to Hamilton was technically a drive-through penalty.

However, as it was issued retrospectively McLaren barrister Mark Philips QC had argued that no actual drive-through took place, so the appeal should be considered.

Secondly, the judges had to decide if Hamilton sufficiently surrendered the advantage he had gained when cutting the chicane.

The Englishman was battling with Massa's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen at the Spa circuit when he cut the Bus Stop chicane, resulting in him overtaking the Finnish driver.

Despite allowing Raikkonen to immediately reclaim the lead, Hamilton then overtook the Ferrari driver at the next corner to go back in front.

As video footage of the incident was shown, Hamilton told the court he was trying to avoid crashing into Raikkonen.

"We had a great battle and there was no need to take stupid risks, so I had to cut the chicane," he said.

"I've since studied the footage about 10 times and I can remember it vividly like it was yesterday.

"I believe I then gave the advantage back. I honestly, hand on heart, feel I did so."

Whitmarsh told reporters he believed the judges were "confident of our facts" following the hearing.

"Based on the evidence we saw at the time, and from subsequent analysis, we believe any advantage was ceded," he added.

"Therefore it's even more reason to get those points back."

Hamilton has since left France for Singapore ahead of Sunday's first ever night race.
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New Technical Rgulations to bring smiles??-F1 2009

happy times ahead?:Force India VJM01 at malaysia,sepang(above)

Next year will see the biggest change in the technical regulations for some time. It’s certainly the greatest since the grooved tyre/narrow track switch in 1998, and perhaps the largest overhaul of the rules since turbo engines were banned after 1988.
In 2009 F1 wing sizes will be reduced, movable front wing flaps allowed, slick tyres will return and engines will be allowed to use Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS). It’s a lot for the teams to get to grips with.
Some of those towards the rear of the field see this as their chance to make a leap forward and have sacrificed efforts on their 2008 programmes to get 2009 right. Which ones stand to make the biggest gains?
Honda are the team that seem to have gambled the most on next year. They’ve brought fewer developments to the 2008 car than their rivals and were the first team to test a working KERS. As a result, there have even been rumours that Fernando Alonso may join the team in 2009 as a stop-gap before his widely-expected switch to Ferrari in 2010 - because he considers Honda a better prospect for next year than Renault.
Force India might be expected to struggle in 2009 as one of F1’s smaller teams. However for the first time in several years it looks set to go into a second consecutive year with the same owner, and that consistency will be hugely welcome.
Team boss Vijay Mallya recently said:
Force India have clearly demonstrated that we have caught up and improved. One realises how tough Formula One really is and it reinforces the challenge that I have before me for 2009 to be really competitive.
I’m not only catching up from last season, but from the last three seasons. And we have caught up, even though F1 has become so competitive, which is good.
I am quite optimistic, however, that my experience so far has pointed us in the right direction. I now know precisely what I’m up against, so I can plan better. Maybe I learned the hard way, but it’s good to learn. So 2009 will be much more competitive for the Force India team.
Williams bought a stake in Automotive Hybrid Power, a company which makes Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems, in April. They also invested a lot of effort in their 2009 programme, but a few weeks ago revealed they were switching some efforts back to their 2008 campaign. Has the team lost its way?
Renault was telling everyone this time last year they would do much better in 2008 - but the R28 has scored fewer points so far than the R27 had at the same point last year. Their problems stem from a lack of engine power as recently admitted by Flavio Briatore, and continued difficulties adapting to the Bridgestone control tyres. The switch from grooved tyres to slicks will at least let them start from a clean sheet of paper in that respect.
Red Bull had a fire when they tried out a KERS, and have pointed out that they project is of little value to them, not being a car manufactuter. Given their lesser degree of resources relative to the like of BMW and Toyota, they may struggle early in 2009. What they intend to do with Toro Rosso isn’t clear.
BMW appeared to refocus their efforts on 2009 after achieving their objective of winning a race in Montreal. Rumours suggest Robert Kubica, who led the title race after Montreal, was not happy with this. They had a high-profile problem with KERS when one of their mechanics was electrocuted. But their Albert 2 supercomputer has allowed them to make excellent progress with aerodynamics and you’d expect them to do a good job of adapting to these new rules in particular.
Toyota have been strong supporters of the move to KERS and have encouraged the FIA to increase the power that can be supplied by the device. They manufacturer the world’s most hyped famous hybrid road car, the Prius. Toyota has made great progress in 2008 after a poor 2006 and 2007. But have they diverted enough of their resource to the 2009 aero programme?
Ferrari and McLaren will be pushing their 2008 programmes as hard as possible in an effort to win the championships. Their rivals will be hoping it compromises their ability to prepare for 2009, but Ferrari have said they are already manufacturing parts for next year.
McLaren’s rate of progress with its 2008 car seems to have outstripped even Ferrari’s, and the popular theory is the full resources of its expensive Technology Centre are now bearing fruit.
These two teams have been at the sharp end of F1 for decades and they’ve seen huge changes in the rules before. Are they going to be caught out by this one? I wouldn’t bet on it, but I’d look to the likes of Honda to make big steps forward next year.

View the 2009 FIA Sporting Regulations here

View the 2009 FIA Technical Regulations here