LONDON - MCLAREN yesterday demanded that Lewis Hamilton be made this year's Formula One world champion.
The team's lawyer told an FIA international appeal court that the BMW Sauber and Williams cars, which finished ahead of Hamilton in last month's season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix broke rules by using illegal cool fuel.
McLaren want the three drivers disqualified and Hamilton moved up from seventh in the race to fourth - allowing the 22-year-old British rookie to overhaul Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who won the drivers' title by a single point.
'If you put in cool fuel it increases the horse power. And the principle is clear,' said McLaren's lawyer Ian Mill. 'The breach was performance-enhancing. The sanction has to be disqualification.'
The lawyer urged the four judges, whose decision is expected today, not to be influenced by the fact that the title is at stake.
He said: 'Whenever in the past there has been a disqualification, there has been a re-classification of results. All we ask you to do is what normally happens.'
Retired seven-time champion Michael Schumacher hoped that Raikkonen, his successor with Ferrari, would not lose his title.
'I think it would be bad for Formula One because it had been finished fair and square on the track,' said the German, who surprised even himself by continuing to post the fastest times on his second day of testing for Ferrari.
But he insisted yesterday: 'Seriously, a return is not up for debate. It was simply a case of enjoying being back behind the wheel and helping the team.'
