By Phil Huff
May 5 2005

Lucky Strike BAR Honda are looking to defy the FIA and race at this weekends Spanish Grand Prix, resorting to legal challenges if necessary. "We are examining our options," said team chief Nick Fry. "Our objective is to race this weekend. We have some of the best sporting lawyers in Britain, and probably the world, working on this now.

"Obviously if we are to race this weekend we need to get some judgement from a court pretty soon, probably Friday morning. I think we need to get the car into qualifying so I think that will be our final deadline."


No action in Spain today

Previous attempts by teams to force the FIA's hand through legal measures haven't always turned out well. Arrows attempted to force the FIA to allow their cars in to races, despite being insolvent, while Phoenix (remember them?) couldn't get an entry despite apparently buying the rights to the Prost F1 team. More recently, Paul Stoddart went to court to force the FIA to allow their 2004 specification cars into the 2005 Australian Grand Prix. The court allowed the entry, only to have the FIA threaten to abandon the whole Grand Prix. Stoddart backed down.

Should BAR Honda succeed in forcing the FIA's hand, one can only begin to imagine what ultimate penalty may be handed out.