Sauber Drivers Excluded from Australian GP

Sauber drivers Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi have been disqualified from the 2011 Australian Grand Prix due to technical infringement.

Shortly after the race in Melbourne, which rookie Perez finished on an astonishing 7th place, while followed by his teammate Kobayashi, the race stewards announced that both Sauber cars have been found in breach of technical rules 3.10.1 and 3.10.2 of the FIA rulebook. Here is what those two articles state:

“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.”

“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.”

Sauber-Ferrari have already signaled their intention to appeal the disqualification, with the presumed rule-breaking occurring in the uppermost rear wing element of their challenger.

With the FIA stewards latest decision, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa has now finished the race in 7th place, while STR’s Sebastien Buemi will be credited with the 8th position. The last two point-scoring positions have been transferred to Force India’s duo Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta. Under the circumstances, Di Resta, and not Perez, has become the first rookie to score points in 2011.