Jenson Button will find out if his car is legal when world motorsport’s governing body, the FIA, makes a final ruling on the diffuser row on Tuesday.
The Formula 1 championship leader’s Brawn Grand Prix team, Toyota and Williams use a split-level diffuser.
The FIA rejected a protest by rival teams who argue the design does not conform to the new 2009 regulations.
But the International Court of Appeal will rule on the issue and could deduct points from Brawn, Toyota and Williams.
An independent panel will hear arguments from both sides in Paris on Tuesday, with a verdict expected the following day…Â Details
 So. I’ve been away in the Alps for nine days – anything happen while I was away?
Doh – Hamilton-porky-gate, that’s what’s happened.
And what a load of fuss over nothing. McLaren try and steal back a place that was rightly theirs by a bit of truth economy in the steward’s room and it all kicks off like it was really important.
Excuse me, when did F1 drivers ever tell the truth?
You get them explaining away accidents after races and you can clearly see that their version of events doesn’t tally with the TV replays. But nobody says “you’re a liar” and tries to ban them for races – because they’re F1 drivers and they’re just trying it on…Â Details
If Formula One is to follow the familiar habit of shooting itself spectacularly in the foot then the sport’s appeal court, sitting in Paris on Tuesday, will declare the winning car from the first two grands prix to be illegal. Brawn, along with Williams and Toyota, have been challenged by rival teams who did not appear to be so crafty when reading the 2009 technical regulations and failed to spot a design loophole exploited by, it is no coincidence, the three teams that have set the early pace. Since the defendants have already received tacit approval of the controversial but clever diffusers at the rear of their cars, it would be a surprise if the FIA went against their own officials.
If they did, it would be another disaster heaped upon a sport in danger of suffocating from a surfeit of drama and nonsense that has little to do with the actual racing. But, while Jenson Button’s wins in Australia and Malaysia are likely to stand, there is every chance that the FIA World Motor Sport Council may emerge from a subsequent meeting on 29 April with smoke curling from both barrels after splattering McLaren’s reputation around the governing body’s grand surroundings in Place de la Concorde…Â Details