Formula 1 teams doubt FRIC suspension ban can be delayed

As AUTOSPORT revealed earlier this week, the FIA's technical delegate Charlie Whiting has written to all teams indicating that, after investigation, motor racing's governing body believed FRIC could be in contravention of the technical rules.

That means there was a risk of a protest lodged against a team running FRIC being accepted and sent to the stewards, who will deem whether or not a car is illegal.

Whiting did make it clear, however, that if all teams agreed to not challenge their rivals for running FRIC then the FIA would also hold off on the possibility of notifying stewards itself of any rules breach.

Sources suggest that a number of outfits - including Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, Lotus and Williams - have already indicated that they will support a pact to not protest rivals for running FRIC.

AUTOSPORT has learned, however, that other outfits are less eager to support that move - and may be ready to protest any rival that does run with FRIC from the German GP.

The prospect of that happening means that F1's bigger outfits may have to remove FRIC to avoid the chance of being thrown out of the results.

Final confirmation on where the other teams stand is not expected until next week.

Most teams tested without their FRIC systems during this week's post-British GP running at Silverstone, following Tuesday's instruction that FRIC was facing a ban.

And although there have been discussions all season about the future of FRIC, amid concern the systems were getting ever more complicated and expensive, the FIA decision to propose an effective ban immediately caught some squads by surprise.

McLaren racing director Eric Boullier admitted earlier this week that his outfit had not been expecting such an action from the FIA.

"It came as a total surprise," said Boullier, whose team has made it clear that it will ditch its FRIC if there is no guarantee that systems will not get protested.

"It was not based on any team's action, it was an FIA action. We had been warned at the weekend that something could come of this, and then we got this technical directive."