HRT and Marussia file a complaint against Caterham
The judgment in the dispute between Force India and Caterham could have additional consequences for Tony Fernandes's team since HRT and Marussia have decided to file a complaint with the FIA. Both teams believe they were disadvantaged by the fact that their rival used another team's technology, which allowed it to obtain the funds reserved for the tenth place in the Constructors' Championship.
Indeed, in his 122-page judgment, the British judge included a paragraph of great importance for the teams: «In my opinion, the computer-aided design files of Aerolab/FondTech reproduce a substantial part of Force India’s files concerning the following parts: the vortex generator, the lower part of the rear brakes, and the mirrors.»
This amounts to saying that Caterham (then known as Team Lotus) used parts for which it did not have the intellectual property rights, which contravenes the Concorde Agreements. If Caterham has already been forced to pay its rival the “symbolic” sum of 25,000 euros in damages, the decision made by the British judge could cost it the 30 million dollars linked to its tenth place in the Constructors’ Championship during its two seasons of existence.
HRT is primarily concerned as having finished two consecutive seasons in eleventh place in the same ranking, this sum could directly come to them. This would, therefore, have a direct impact on the team’s budget, which is one of the smallest on the grid. This is why a team spokesperson declared: «HRT has submitted a request to the FIA to examine the judgment rendered by the High Court of the United Kingdom against Caterham. HRT will take all measures deemed appropriate. If there have been illicit maneuvers that benefited others and harmed our team, HRT will obviously oppose them.»
We can recall that in 2007, McLaren was forced to pay 100 million euros to Ferrari in the Spygate affair, where an engineer from the Italian team had transmitted confidential information to a counterpart in Woking.
With the participation of RacingBusiness.fr
