Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota have been vindicated in their split diffuser design as the FIA Court of Appeal declares their split level diffuser legal. BMW boss Mario Theissen has said he’ll accept the decision but didn’t consider the design fully legitimate. One of the teams that disputed the legality of the split level diffuser, Red Bull has already gone on record saying they have been looking at implementing the design since it first appeared three weeks ago in Melbourn but were waiting on the outcome of the appeal. The bottom line is that Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota stole a march on the other teams by making a better interpretation of the new regulations and the rest of the grid will be playing catch up for a while at great financial cost on and off the track. In a statement Ross Brawn said “The FIA technical department, the stewards at the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix and now five judges at the International Court of Appeal have confirmed our belief that our cars have always strictly complied with the 2009 technical regulations.” – which just about says it all! Brawn openly criticised fellow technical guru’s Ferrari’s Rory Byrne and Red Bull’s Adrian Newey prompting one of the judges to brand Ross Brawn “a person of supreme arrogance”. And to be honest, Brawn has a lot to be arrogant about, two constructors championships with Benetton and six consecutive constructors titles with Ferrari before taking a sebatical in 2007. Ross Brawn has an astonishing technical mind and a visionary strategist to boot. Not to mention winning his first two grand prix as a team owner!
