Almost four months on from the season nine finale in London, TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team’s appeal regarding António Félix da Costa’s three-minute penalty has been rejected by the International Court of Appeal.
The appeal being rejected means that the full results from season nine are finally able to be confirmed, with Da Costa claiming ninth in the Drivers’ Championship and Porsche fourth in the Teams’ Standings.
Da Costa was slapped with a staggering three-minute time penalty in the final race of the London E-Prix double-header, which demoted him from second to last at the end of the event. The Portuguese driver received the penalty after his front-right tyre had fallen below the minimum tyre pressure, something which was caused by debris on the circuit.
Porsche went to the Court of Appeal as their initial appeal to the FIA was unsuccessful, with the Stuttgart-based outfit having argued that they’d informed the governing body of the delaminated tyre, only to be given the all-clear to continue. Da Costa was seething with the stewards after the race and insisted that they weren’t good enough.
The Court of Appeal held a hearing on 7 November regarding Porsche’s case, only to deem it as inadmissible. Whilst they accepted that the size of the penalty was “unusual”, they noted that the stewards actions cannot be contested if the time penalty goes by the sporting regulations.
Porsche argued that the duration of the penalty was equivalent to Da Costa being disqualified. When a driver gets disqualified, they are typically granted a hearing. Ultimately, the Court of Appeal deemed that the penalty Da Costa received was not “arbitrary”.
The Court stated: “It is true that the 3-minute penalty was unusual, but no clear evidence (of arbitrariness) was presented to the court.
“If (the team) had been able to show that the stewards had deliberately imposed a disproportionate time penalty instead of disqualifying the driver to deny him the right to be heard, the court might have come to a different conclusion.”
The decision reached by the Court of Appeal has left the German manufacturer “disappointed” as they wanted to “put forward our arguments”; however, they’re now turning their full attention to season 10.
An official Porsche statement read: “We accept the court’s decision but are disappointed that our appeal was not admissible, as we would have liked to put forward our arguments in the interests of the sport. We are looking ahead and our full focus is on the upcoming season.”
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