Sauber's Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi have both been excluded from the Australian Grand Prix for a technical infringement.
A random post-race test by the FIA found the dimensions of the rear of the cars contravened two regulations - 3.10.1 and 3.10.2 - with the upper rear-wing being highlighted as breaching the rule that states "the local concave radius of curvature may not be smaller than 100mm". The outcome removes the pair from point-scoring positions, with Perez originally in seventh and Kobayashi in eighth.
Sauber immediately lodged a statement of intent to appeal and said it gained no advantage.
"This is a very surprising and disappointing result," said technical director James Key. "It appears that there is a question over the top surface of the uppermost rear wing element, this area is not the working surface of the component and therefore relatively unimportant to its function. Certainly this has not lead to any performance advantage. We are checking the design of the parts now to better understand the situation and we intend to appeal the decision made by the stewards."
The result is that Felipe Massa moves up to seventh and Sebastian Buemi eighth, with the Force India pair of Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta in ninth and tenth respectively.
Force India also asked the FIA to investigate Buemi's pass on Sutil, during which the Toro Rosso appeared to run wide off the track at turn four, but the governing body deemed the move legal.
Regulations
Article 3.10.1 Any bodywork more than 150mm behind the rear wheel centre line which is between 150mm and 730mm above the reference plane, and between 75mm and 355mm from the car centre line, must lie in an area when viewed from the side of the car that is situated between 150mm and 350mm behind the rear wheel centre line and between 300mm and 400mm above the reference plane. When viewed from the side of the car no longitudinal cross section may have more than one section in this area.Furthermore, no part of this section in contact with the external air stream may have a local concave radius of curvature smaller than 100mm.
Once this section is defined, 'gurney' type trim tabs may be fitted to the trailing edge. When measured in any longitudinal cross section no dimension of any such trim tab may exceed 20mm.
Article 3.10.2 Other than the bodywork defined in Article 3.10.9, any bodywork behind a point lying 50mm forward of the rear wheel centre line which is more than 730mm above the reference plane, and less than 355mm from the car centre line, must lie in an area when viewed from the side of the car that is situated between the rear wheel centre line and a point 350mm behind it.
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