Williams will appeal the race stewards decision to exclude Felipe Massa from the results of the Brazilian Grand Prix, in which he finished in eighth place.
It was found that Massa’s right-rear tyre was 27 degrees centigrade above the maximum allowed tyre temperature prescribed by tyre supplier Pirelli when it was measured on the grid.
Meanwhile the tyre pressure was 0.1psi above the minimum, had the tyre been heated to the 110 degree limit, it’s likely the pressure would have been lower.
The Brazilian’s car was therefore not in compliance with FIA technical directive TD/029-15 and FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer referred the matter to the race stewards, who chose to exclude Massa from the race results, costing him four points.
The Williams team have however served notice of an appeal, citing their own data which proves Massa’s right-rear was in fact below the maximum temperature.
“The notice of appeal that we will make is based around the fact we have three independent temperature readings and all of them say how we are within the limits set by Pirelli and the prescriptions for this event,” said Williams performance chief Rob Smedley.
“We have two independent sensors, the first one is the PT1000 which sits inside the tyre blanket and tells us what the surface temperature is and that one was always in compliance with the regulations.
“The last time we could read it, when they took the set off to the grid, it was about 104 degrees.
“The next independent measure we have is from the car data, this is a completely independent measure and the right rear tyre of Massa’s car was 105.7C.
“So we have two independent sensors which both say we were in compliance with the regulations and we have data to back that up.”
He also noted that one of the sensors they use is identical to that used by the FIA, therefore suggesting the governing body’s data reading was inaccurate.
“In addition, we have had independent correlation from our blanket temperature sensors and car temperature sensors to the FIA guns, which Pirelli did for us after all the fuss with Mercedes in Italy.
“We have also bought exactly the same sensor that the FIA uses and we do random checks throughout the weekend to make sure this does not happen.
“For us it’s quite critical for us that we understand where his problem is.
“We have three independent temperature measures and none of them give anything like the measure the FIA took on the grid.”
