Sauber's Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi have lost their seventh and eighth places in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix after both were disqualified for technical infringements on their cars.
Following post-race checks, the Melbourne stewards decided that both Sauber C30s were in breach of technical rules 3.10.1* and 3.10.2**, in relation to their rear wings. The team plan to appeal the decision.
"This is a very surprising and disappointing result," commented James Key, Saubers technical director. "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 led 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."
The ruling means Ferraris Felipe Massa moves up to seventh, Force India's Adrian Sutil to eighth, Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi to ninth and Force India's Paul di Resta to tenth, the Scot thus scoring on his F1 debut.
*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."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9435626.stm