The cars of the Williams, Toyota and Brawn GP teams have been passed as legal to race in the Australian Grand Prix, after the race stewards rejected the protests lodged by three of the other teams on the grid.
Ferrari, Renault and Red Bull had all protested the legality of the diffusers attached to the three teams' cars, while BMW Sauber also tried to lodge their own protest, but messed up the paperwork or something, and it was rejected. The issue revolves around the diffuser on the Williams, Toyota and Brawn cars, which the other teams claim are larger than is strictly legal in the rules, and that the teams have exploited a pesky loophole to gain an advantage.
Following the complaints being formally made, members of each of the three accused teams were called to a hastily convened meeting with the race stewards, and after four hours of boring Powerpoint faffing and pie charts, the FIA happily confirmed that the stewards had deemed the protested designs legal.
Earlier, Toyota boss John Howett had defended their design, saying that "as far as we are concerned we have studied the regulations in detail and we are very confident that we have interpreted them correctly."
The next step of the endless fun that is "DiffuserGate" will see Ferrari, Renault and Red Bull likely challenge the stewards decision, and take an appeal to the FIA's Court of Appeal.
Such an appeal would only be heard after next weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix, meaning that the three affected teams will effectively be racing under appeal for the first two races of the season.
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