By Phil Huff
June 21 2005

The FIA have revealed in a fax (reproduced below) just how serious the charges being faced by the seven Michelin shod teams are, following their mass withdrawal from Sunday's United States Grand Prix. All seven teams, BAR Honda included, have been charged with breaking rule 151c of the FIA's International Sporting Code. This rule states that any team cannot participate in "any fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally."

The FIA's stance is unsurprising, given the fiasco that ensued at Indianapolis following Michelin's failure to provide a race safe tyre or accept any of the proposals for racing put to them. That makes up two of the reasons for charging the teams as above, with the other two being that the teams 'wrongfully refused to allow your cars to start the race' and that each team 'combined with other teams, to make a demonstration damaging to the image of Formula One by pulling into the pits immediately before the start of the race.'

Rule 131 of the F1 Sporting Regulations has also been broken, at least according to the FIA, which states that a team must inform the stewards at least 45 minutes before the start of the race if their cars are not going to take the start.

All seven teams will appear before the FIA's World Motor Sport Council on Wednesday 29 June to answer the charges above. The Council are capable of handing out punishments ranging from financial penalties to race bans.

The fax that the FIA sent to BAR Honda appears in full below...