Marussia has asked the FIA to investigate whether or not the former Team Lotus breached the Concorde Agreement by using parts that rival F1 squad Force India owned the copyright to.
In the wake of a British Court ruling that Lotus – now competing as Caterham – had misused a small number of parts in its 2010 car, Marussia has notified the FIA that it would like the governing body to look into the matter. This comes after Force India made it clear last week that it too plans to approach the FIA about the situation.
In the court ruling that related to the dispute between Force India and Lotus/Aerolab, the judge stated: "In my judgment the Aerolab/FondTech CAD files do reproduce a substantial part of the corresponding Force India CAD files for the following parts: the vortex generator, rear brake duct lower element and rear view mirror. It follows that the copyright claim succeeds to that extent, but not otherwise."
Under Schedule 3 of the Concorde Agreement, the document by which Formula 1 is run, teams are not allowed to use certain parts of the cars that they do not own the intellectual property rights to. Although it is not clear whether the parts at the center of the dispute were actually raced, Marussia sporting director Graeme Lowdon has revealed that his team is in discussions with the FIA over the matter.
"We are in communication with the FIA, and wish to make no further comment on that at the moment," he said. "But we are happy that the suitable processes are being followed."
The FIA evidently plans to await the outcome of legal action that is underway between Force India and Aerolab/Lotus in Italy before deciding whether a breach of the regulations has taken place.