As seven teams ponder legal action against the FIA as a result of its handling of the Ferrari fuel flow investigation, Red Bull advisor, Helmut Marko believes his team should sue the sport's governing body for the prize money it missed out on in 2019.

Following the summer break, Ferrari scored three successive victories and five successive poles in a remarkable revival that threatened to overturn the championship.

However, following requests from the Austrian team, the FIA issued a number of technical directives relating to fuel flow, and in the weeks that followed the threat from the Italian team fell away dramatically.

On Friday, as pre-season testing came to an end, the FIA issued a statement which further clouded the issue, giving away no details of what its investigation into the Ferrari engine had uncovered and effectively telling the world 'nothing to see here, move along'.

However, seven rival teams believe there is something to see and refuse to move along, and while admitting shock at the manner in which the FIA has acted and its total lack of transparency, have threatened legal action.

Red Bull, which lost out most during Ferrari's short-lived revival believes it has lost out twice, not only on track but in terms of prize money also.

"We lose a double-digit million amount by finishing third instead of second," Helmut Marko told Auto Motor und Sport. "Not just because more money is distributed for second place, but because our sponsorship contracts are also performance-related. I assume that the other teams are similar.

"We have to assume we would have beaten them on the track if everything was fine with the engine," he added.

With an eye on the Spygate cheating scandal that saw McLaren fined $100m in 2007, Marko believes that the Italian team should be similarly punished. "If they really cheated, ten or twenty million would be far too cheap," he said.

"The behaviour of the FIA is the real scandal," he told Der Spiegel in a separate interview. "We should actually instruct Christian (Horner) to sue for $24 million in prize money."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Ted Baker, 09/03/2020 11:28

"Am I being pedantic or can I remember a certain senior member of the FIA used to run the Ferrari F1 team....... has he broken off totally all relations with them to avoid a conflict of interest? Am I being a conspiracy theorist in suggesting this perhaps could colour any judgement made in these investigations?
We all know about the favouritism and "special bonus payments scheme" Bernie had with Ferrari within the sport which upset other teams..........no I am sure I must be wrong, would the FIA have favourites or do anything like that .........or am I?
Go on Christian sue .....this could be interesting!!!"

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2. Posted by BillH, 05/03/2020 17:38

"I don't blame Red Bull for wanting to have a crack at the FIA over this.

The inability for the referee to uphold the rules is not Ferrari's problem so Red Bull are right to have a go at the ref.

Is the FIA admitting that they are unable to technically analyse the PU?

Also, the FIA need to be consistent. The penalties against McLaren Mercedes were extremely harsh which was one thing, however another team in 2003 got few sanctions for something very similar and at the end of 2007 another team had disks of McLaren data and didn't get pinged either.

Sadly, today's saga is deteriorating into a political / legal mess rather than a technical investigation.

Once Red Bull file I expect that filing to be replaced by a class action as the other six teams join Red Bull too. After all, they also lost points, prize money and contractual bonuses."

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3. Posted by Wokingchap, 05/03/2020 16:20

"The FIA have behaved very badly in this situation and something really needs to be done. Marko is not my favourite person in F1 but i hope he does go ahead with this.
As for the cheats in red............."

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4. Posted by kenji, 05/03/2020 13:01

"Marko has a very big mouth. If he feels strongly enough then just do it!! Sue Ferrari and see where that takes you. I doubt that they will because if they do they may have to explain their sources and how their information was sourced and at what cost. That plus their relationship with Mercedes in this matter. Hope that they do actually sue then we may get a glimpse into the murky depths of what is supposed to be a sport!"

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5. Posted by Underdog, 05/03/2020 12:24

"When this all eventually come out, it will be down to the fact that the FIA F1 boss, Jean Todt, was the Ferrari team boss. "

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