Quote Originally Posted by Knock-on
Honda for example were in theory capable of running 7KG underweight. However, there is no evidence they did and the car was unlikely to function very well if they got that low. The whole idea of the scavenger was to allow the cars to get down to a minimum weight without starving the car of fuel.
The issue with the BAR wasn't its fuel system - it was the ballast. The rule is that the dry weight has to be 600kg. The BAR was 593kg dry. The team were trying to use fuel as ballast which was against the rules. And yes, the FIA did go about it all wrong - they knew that the car was illegally underweight from the first race but didn't do anything about it until they scored points. They should have been penalised right at the start and avoided the big problems that insued.