Phoenix and FIA Wait on Court Decision

The court battle between Phoenix Finance and Formula One's governing body, the FIA, has reached a conclusion but the decision over whether the Phoenix team can race is not expected to come in time for this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix.

A spokesperson for the FIA confirmed on Tuesday that the High Court proceedings have reached a conclusion but refused to speculate on which side the decision would favour.

Phoenix front man Charles Nickerson, a Lincolnshire farmer, was unavailable for comment but has previously insisted his team is ready to race as soon as it is given the go-ahead. He had hoped to see the blue Phoenix cars, which are on lease from the defunct Prost Grand Prix outfit, on the grid in the star-studded principality this weekend.

Nickerson snapped up the right to race from the dissolved Prost team just before the start of the season, and used Tom Walkinshaw's TWR engineering company to develop the cars.

The new team turned up in Malaysia but were blocked at customs and the FIA refused their right to race, claiming Prost's liquidators had no right to sell the team's spot on the Grand Prix grid.