Renault decide against using mass damper

After deliberating overnight about whether to fit the device, amid continued uncertainty about its legality, the world champions have decided that it would be better not to race with it.

The move came after a letter from FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting to the teams on Wednesday. It clarified the current situation and made it clear why the governing body believed the devices are illegal.

Earlier this week, Renault had decided to refit the mass damper after Whiting wrote to the teams on Monday telling them that the FIA would ask the Court of Appeal not to punish the teams retrospectively if the devices were confirmed as illegal.

"Firstly, we received notification on Monday that the FIA will recommend to the Court of Appeal that teams who have used the mass damper in Hungary should not have retrospective penalties applied when the hearing takes place between before Turkey," said Renault's director of engineering Pat Symonds earlier this week.

"In light of this, we will use the device again in Hungary."

Renault are not the only team to have removed the mass damper this weekend. Scuderia Toro Rosso had put their cars forward for scrutineering on Thursday with mass dampers fitted.

FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer reiterated his belief that the devices were illegal and informed the stewards, but a hearing was averted after Toro Rosso took them off their car.

Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost told autosport.com that the team could not risk running with the devices because of the unclear legal situation.

"There was a letter last week that said we would be allowed to use it for here, and we decided to run it," he explained. "Yesterday when we arrived we got the message that we were the only team with the dampers in the car, so we decided to remove them.

"As it looks now, maybe it is illegal. We will see. It will be a decision from the court. But the risk was too much to run them."