Red Bull team principal Christian Horner is confident that their appeal against the FIA’s decision to disqualify Daniel Ricciardo from the Australian Grand Prix will be successful.
Horner was left “extremely disappointed” that the 24-year-old was denied his place in the history books by becoming the first Australian to take second place in his home race on his Red Bull debut after being excluded for a fuel flow infringement on his car.
Horner argued the “immature technology” brought in by the governing body this season, as part of a raft of changes to the sport, has been unreliable throughout pre-season testing over the winter.
Therefore as the car conformed to all the other regulations he can see no reason why the FIA’s decision to disqualify Ricciardo will stand following an appeal.
“We had an issue with the sensor that changed its reading through Friday practice. That sensor was then replaced for another sensor on Saturday which then failed during qualifying,” Horner said.
“We were then asked to put the sensor from Friday back into the car and apply an offset. That offset we didn’t feel was correct and as we got into the race we could see there was a significant discrepancy between what the sensor was reading and where our fuel flow – which is the actual injection of fuel into the engine – was stated as.”
Horner, who cannot believe Red Bull were the only team in Sunday’s race to be affected by a fuel sensor problem, added: “We wouldn’t be appealing if we didn’t feel confident we could have a dependable case. It’s just extremely disappointing that this has happened.
“It’s certainly no fault of Daniel’s; I don’t believe it’s the fault of the team’s. I believe we’ve complied with the rules and the investigation documents will be submitted within the appeal.”
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