Formula One teams are reportedly ‘shocked’ by the Federation Internationale Automobile (FIA)’s statement on Friday, concerning their investigation into Ferrari’s power unit at end of 2019 season.
All non Ferrari customer teams have released a joint statement, in which they expressed the fact that they ‘were surprised and shocked’ at the private settlement between the FIA and Ferrari.
Releasing a short statement, Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren, Renault, Alpha Tauri, Racing Point and Williams said; “We, the undersigned teams, were surprised and shocked by the FIA’s statement of Friday 28 February regarding the conclusion of its investigation into the Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 Power Unit.
“An international sporting regulator has the responsibility to act with the highest standards of governance, integrity and transparency.
“After months of investigations that were undertaken by the FIA only following queries raised by other teams, we strongly object to the FIA reaching a confidential settlement agreement with Ferrari to conclude this matter.
“Therefore, we hereby state publicly our shared commitment to pursue full and proper disclosure in this matter, to ensure that our sport treats all competitors fairly and equally. We do so on behalf of the fans, the participants and the stakeholders of Formula One.
“In addition, we reserve our rights to seek legal redress, within the FIA’s due process and before the competent courts.”
Alfa Romeo and Haas are the only two teams other than Ferrari who weren’t part of this statement, given that they are customers of the Italian outfit.
This announcement comes after the FIA released a statement towards the end of the final day of pre-season testing, stating that ‘after thorough technical investigations, it has concluded its analysis of the operation of the Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 Power Unit and reached a settlement with the team.’
They also confirmed that the ‘specifics of the agreement will remain between the parties.’
Both parties have also agreed to ‘a number of technical commitments that will improve the monitoring of all Formula 1 Power Units for forthcoming championship seasons as well as assist the FIA in other regulatory duties in Formula 1 and in its research activities on carbon emissions and sustainable fuels.
What does this mean for Ferrari?
Whilst this will be of concern for FIA and Ferrari, the current settlement still stands unless at least one team decides to pursue the matter further through the FIA International Tribunal (IT) or FIA International Court of Appeal (ICA).
It however is more likely that any appeals will be heard through the ICA under Article 9.1 of the FIA Judicial and Disciplinary rules, concerning sporting decisions.
Should teams fail to find ‘legal readdress’ through either of these two paths then the case could then decide to take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
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