By Phil Huff
May 4 2005

The FIA's appointed scrutineer, Jo Bauer, has confirmed that the 'secret' fuel tank rumoured to exist in the BAR Honda 007 was known about a number of races ago, and has passed previous scrutineering efforts. Confirming what we have been saying at BAR-Talk.com since the news of BAR's difficulties broke at Imola, Bauer commented "No, it is not a secret mechanism, it is an additional tank and we were aware of it since the Malaysia Grand Prix.

"At the Malaysian Grand Prix, we did a general inspection of all fuel cells of all teams, following a request made in the Technical Working Group on February 4th to check that the right material is used."

With the BAR being found underweight once drained of all fuel, including that held in a second collector tank, focus shifted to the possible use of fuel as ballast.

"The thought was that," added Bauer, "if we had to drain fuel, we would have to have a closer look to see if there was fuel in it or not."

Our opinion is still that the dispute revolves around the interpretation of the FIA's intentionally vague rules.

While it has long been accepted that fuel cannot be used as ballast to make up the minimum weight of the car, following a clarification back in 1994, the FIA have never placed that clarification in the rules.

As BAR first entered Formula One in 1999, the team are rightly claiming that their car meets the letter of the rules, even if it runs somewhat wide of the spirit and intention of the rules.