BAR's Special Fuel Tank Compartment
A look at a creative interpretation of the minimum weight rule from 2005.
Weight is a serious matter in Formula 1. The number of kilograms that the engine must propel around the circuit directly impacts lap times. Ideally, the lighter a car is, the better it performs, as it will go faster. Simple as that.
Unrestricted weight can, of course, lead teams—competitive entities they are—to shed as many kilograms as possible. It would be the proverbial opening a can of worms. That’s why weight is strictly regulated by the FIA, and any competitor found to be below the mandated minimum weight is disqualified. The most recent example of this occurred in Belgium half a year ago when George Russell lost his victory due to an underweight car.
Disqualifications of this nature are quite rare and typically result from genuine mistakes, as illustrated in the example above. However, on even rarer occasions, the governing body may discover that a team has run their car lighter than the scale indicates. Perhaps the most famous instance of this is Tyrrell in 1984.
Since then, a similar situation has occurred only once, at the beginning of the 2005 season.
The Not So Competent Stewards
Jenson Button, a driver for BAR Honda, savored the taste of champagne on the podium after finishing 3rd in the San Marino Grand Prix. Following the race, as part of a routine inspection, his car was weighed both with and without fuel. The latter measurement indicated that it fell below the 600 kg limit. After six hours of discussions between the team and the stewards, the car was ultimately deemed legal.
The FIA wasn’t satisfied with the final result. The following day, it appealed the ruling made by its own stewards. Why?
“The team was asked to pump the fuel out of their car. They left 15 liters in the tank and told us it was empty,” said FIA President Max Mosley after the governing body won the appeal.
The Unconventional Fuel Tank
Ten days after the race, BAR Honda and the governing body presented their cases before the International Court of Appeal in Paris. The judges sided with the FIA, employing the same reasoning as Mosley:
WHEREAS the inspection revealed that on top of the 160 grams of fuel that was emptied, 8.92 kg of fuel still remained in a special compartment within the fuel tank and a further 2.46 kg remained in the bottom of the fuel tank. These quantities remained in the vehicle after the BAR Honda team had confirmed “That’s it” when asked if the draining process was completed.
Without the extra fuel, which was illegally used as ballast, the car weighed 5.4 kg under the limit. To make matters worse, Button’s teammate, Takuma Sato, had an identical fuel tank with the same “special compartment.”
Guilty of…
BAR insisted that the car should’ve been weighed with the remaining fuel, but the Court dismissed this claim as “not supported by any rules of the Code and Regulations.” Furthermore, they did not find the team’s fuel consumption data to be a guarantee that their cars consistently weighed a minimum of 600 kg.
The judges refrained from directly accusing the team of cheating, which could’ve had severe consequences for the Brackley outfit, as the previously mentioned Tyrrell had been disqualified for an entire season. Nevertheless, in their view, BAR’s actions at the San Marino Grand Prix, and their failure to seek clarification on the weight rule, constituted “a highly regrettable negligence and lack of transparency,” warranting disqualification from the event in question and an additional two-race ban.
The consequences of the latter were quite comical. The hearing took place on Wednesday, and two days later, the Spanish Grand Prix weekend began. BAR had obviously been present in the paddock, hoping for good news from Paris. Well, the news was: pack your stuff and leave.