Whitmarsh grateful for FIA treatment

The team was charged with five breaches of the FIA's Sporting Code, receiving a three-race ban suspended for 12 months after accepting all the charges.

The decision to suspend the penalty was made because of the team's conduct in addressing the cultural problems that led then-sporting director Dave Ryan and Lewis Hamilton to mislead the stewards over whether he had let Toyota's Jarno Trulli past under safety car conditions in Australia.

Whitmarsh, who appeared briefly at this morning's hearing in Paris before leaving, repeated his apology for the team's conduct and insisted that it had taken steps to ensure that it would never happen again.

"I would like to thank the FIA World Motor Sport Council members for affording me the opportunity to answer their questions this morning," said Whitmarsh.

"We are aware that we made serious mistakes in Australia and Malaysia, and I was therefore very glad to be able to apologise for those mistakes once again.

"I was also pleased to be able to assure the FIA World Motor Sport Council members that we had taken appropriate action with a view to ensuring that such mistakes do not occur again."