Ricciardo Still Disqualified

Daniel Ricciardo, the number two driver at Infinity Red Bull Racing, was disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix on March 16th after finishing second in the race. Ricciardo was disqualified because he violated a new fuel usage rule that states how much fuel the cars can use and how fast they can use it. According to the FIA, Ricciardo violated these rules by using his fuel too quickly, giving him a competitive edge over the other drivers. The team was informed of this violation by the FIA, but they insisted that according to their data, Ricciardo was within the allowed fuel flow rate of 100 kg/h at full throttle. Red Bull appealed the FIA's decision and it wasn't until today, April 15th, that they learned of the appeal committee's verdict, which was that the FIA's decision stands, meaning that Ricciardo will not be given his second place finish and 18 valuable championship points back.

I, personally, completely agree with the FIA's decision, mainly because Red Bull have been known to stretch the rules far too often and now they are getting their just deserts. Last year, Red Bull was rumored to have put an illegal antilock braking system (ABS) on Sebastian Vettel's car, thus giving him an enormous advantage over all the other drivers, since the ABS allowed him to enter and exit the corners faster. Of course, Red Bull denied this accusation and the FIA never found anything illegal on Vettel's car, but I, along with a great majority of the world, believe that Vettel had some sort of competitive edge over everyone else, because there is no way he actually was as fast as his lap times showed he was last year. Vettel is not the best driver on the grid and if the car really was that fast, Vettel's former team mate, Mark Webber, would have also been as fast as Vettel. However, Webber was nowhere near as fast as Vettel, proving that Vettel had an edge at least over his teammate, if not over the entire field.

The FIA's decision to disqualify Ricciardo from the Melbourne GP was the right decision and I believe that this is the first of many incidents that Red Bull will have in their desperate need for success in one of their most demanding seasons of recent memory.