This is a more than expected epilogue so that an end can be put to the bickering which has turned into open war between Ducati and four other manufacturers. These, made up of Honda, Suzuki, Aprilia and KTM, contest the use of a deflector hanging on the swingarm of the GP19. For reds, it is used to cool the rear tire. For the plaintiffs, it generates illicit aerodynamic downforce. The FIM Court of Appeal will meet this Friday at 11:00 a.m. to resolve this Gordian knot.
There was a first protest at Losail at the end of the first MotoGP race of the year. It was rejected and there was an appeal. The Court of Appeal will meet this Friday at 11 a.m. at the FIM headquarters near Lake Geneva to decide whether the result of the Qatar Grand Prix will be upheld or whether Ducati will be disqualified. No one knows how long the investigations will take. The only statutory deadline for the Court of Appeal is four weeks after receipt of the appeal, which in this case would be April 4. The Argentine Grand Prix takes place at the end of this March.
The Court of Appeal is composed of three people chosen from among the 12 members of the “International Appeal Jury Commission”. For this specific procedure, the Director of the Commission, Anand Sashidharan (India), Swedish Lars Nilsson and the Finn Sakari Vuorensola were named.
It is important to mention that the appeal judges are lawyers and do not participate in the daily life of MotoGP. They make their decision solely on the basis of regulatory texts and existing evidence, as in an ordinary trial. It is also clear that they do not have the same aerodynamic knowledge as the FIM stewards who rejected the protest and the FIM appeal stewards, who could not or would not deliver their verdict in Qatar. Which brought the case to the Court of Appeal.
The documents that the parties to the dispute submit to the Appeals Tribunal are not known. There will be little substantive evidence from the four protesters. Ducati is, however, confident that it can prove the legality of its deflector. It would in fact comply with the regulations because it is used to cool the rear tire. By recording tire temperatures, you can easily prove your point. At least that's what Gigi Dall'Igna is convinced.
Both the validation of the result and the disqualification of the Ducati are entirely possible. If the Court of Appeal rules against Ducati, the Italian manufacturer could appeal this judgment to the International Sports Tribunal CAS.
