Rivals claim the rear diffuser of three cars, including this Williams, are illegal

BMW Sauber have joined the teams taking their rejected protest over diffusers on the Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota cars to Formula 1's Court of Appeal.

Motorsport's world governing body, the FIA, will hear the appeal from the German team along with that of Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault on 14 April.

The protest BMW lodged on Saturday was rejected, triggering their appeal.

They had tried to protest at the season-opening race in Australia but submitted their paperwork too late.

BMW's appeal was subsequently turned down in Melbourne but the matter will now be resolved in Paris in the week leading up to Chinese Grand Prix, the third race of the season.

Ferrari, Red Bull, Renault and BMW all claim the rear diffuser, a crucial part at the back of the cars, does not conform to new F1 regulations on the three teams in question.

"The protest is purely a formal matter," said a BMW spokesman.

606: DEBATE Not exactly a scientific approach but thought I would see what kind of pace the cars are if we take into account the "diffuser effect"... jimmyjojo2008

"It is intended to ensure that the result in Malaysia is also taken into consideration in the judge's decision in the appeal proceedings on 14 April."

If the teams who are appealing win their case, the independent judges would then have two options open to them.

They could allow the results of the first two races to stand, with the three teams concerned being forced to amend their cars from the Chinese GP onwards - or they could make null and void any points won by those teams in Australia and Malaysia.

Brawn team owner Ross Brawn, whose team finished one-two in Melbourne and secured pole position at Sepang, said on Saturday that the latest protest merely meant that six stewards rather than three now agreed the cars were legal.

He told Autosport.com that he had offered a year ago to clear up what he said were ambiguities in the regulations concerning diffusers but that the other teams turned him down.

"In March 2008 that was offered," said Brawn.

I try to wear two hats - one is what is good for Formula 1 and after a certain period, I take that hat off and I wear the 'what's good for my team' one Ross Brawn

"If I'm frank, I didn't say 'look we are going to do this diffuser if you don't accept this rule' because I'm not going to tell people what we're doing, but I explained that I felt that we should have a different set of rules to simplify what needs to be done.

"I offered them and they were rejected, so my conscience is very clear. And those rules that I put on the table would have stopped a lot of things. It would have stopped the diffuser, it would have stopped all those bargeboards around the front, and it would have cleaned the cars up.

"Because it was clear that when we started to work on the regulations that there were things that you could do, and we needed to perhaps clean them up, but nobody was interested. They are interested now."

Brawn, technical director of Ferrari for more than 10 years before he moved to Brawn's forerunners Honda in 2007, described comments made by team principals who were complaining about the situation now as "uneducated and uninformed".

"I have always tried to wear two hats," he added. "One is what is good for Formula 1 and I wear that hat for a certain period, then I take that hat off and I wear the 'what's good for my team' one - be it Ferrari or whoever it is.

"For sure there are periods when I am very happy to say what is good for Formula 1 and that is the period a year to 18 months before you start doing a car. What's the best thing to do?

"When we get in to designing the car and actually creating it, you can't go back then and say 'oh we have found this great new feature I had better stop it', its a different hat you have to wear.

"And everybody in F1 I hope does that. When there is plenty of time you try and get the rules in the best shape you can, and when the rules are decided you have to go flat out in producing the best car you can within those regulations."

If Brawn, Toyota and Williams eventually have their cars passed legal after the appeal, their rivals will then be forced to design similar parts themselves.

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