Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsWilliams

Williams drops Massa appeal due to cost

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Williams has dropped its appeal against Felipe Massa's exclusion from the Brazilian Grand Prix over tyre temperatures.

Massa's right rear tyre was found to be 27C over the maximum tread temperature after the '5 minute' signal had been given on the grid at Interlagos, eventually leading to him being excluded from eighth place. Following the FIA's decision, Williams announced its intention to appeal, claiming it had evidence that the reading taken on the grid was incorrect.

However, with Massa's exclusion not impacting on the team securing third place in the constructors' championship and with legal costs involved, Williams has now opted not to appeal/

"Following detailed consideration the team has concluded that despite not agreeing with the exclusion and believing it has sufficient evidence with which to successfully contest the ruling, it will not formally appeal the decision as a hearing date is unlikely to be available until after the end of the season impacting a time when the team wishes to turn its attention to its 2016 campaign," a Williams statement read.

"Given the financial climate of the sport, and the fact that the decision does not impact the team’s Constructors’ Championship position, it has been decided that this would be an unnecessary cost to endure."

Massa told F1i on Thursday afternoon he felt the exclusion was "really strange" but trusted Williams to take whatever action it felt necessary.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.