Sauber's Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi have both been excluded from the Australian Grand Prix official results due to 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".
FIA inspectors outcome simply removes both drivers from the official results table, although Perez has been originally assigned with 7th position and Kobayashi 8th.
Sauber immediately lodged a statement of intent to appeal as the team stated that gained no advantage by the infringement.
Team's technical director James Key commented:
"This is a very surprising and disappointing result. 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."
Sauber's disqualification means 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.
Official FIA's regulations are stated as follows
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.
As seen in the photos above, the part in question is the ‘V’ shape on the top of the rear wing, In simple terms, a ‘concave radius of curvature’ is referring to a curve pointing inward (and in this case that curve cannot measure less than 100mm). The drop can be seen above the second 'e' of the telcel sponsorship logo.
As it can be see the Sauber wing features a dropping section from one level to the next in its middle section, which is possibly less than 100mm in length, and so it is this which the FIA is complaining about. If you take Williams as an example, their similar design does not drop inward at such a tight angle and that particular surface is therefore longer.
