Lewis Hamilton’s team, McLaren Mercedes, are not out of the woods yet over their role in the McLaren-Ferrari secrets scandal after the FIA, Formula One’s governing body, yesterday agreed that the matter be referred to its Court of Appeal.

The decision by Max Mosley, president of the FIA, came in response to a request from Luigi Macaluso, president of the Automobile Club of Italy, acting on behalf of Ferrari. It also comes after widespread disbelief in the sport – and outside it – over the World Motor Sport Council’s (WMSC) decision in Paris last week that found that McLaren were in breach of regulations covering “fraudulent conduct” through their possession of Ferrari secrets, but spared the Woking-based team any punishment.

The FIA said that the hearing of the Court of Appeal would not take place until the end of this month, after Formula One’s summer break. In his letter to Mosley, Macaluso argued that McLaren had breached the rules repeatedly and “through several top team representatives”, not just the chief designer, Mike Coughlan, who has admitted receiving a large dossier of Ferrari secrets.

Macaluso also argued that, by not punishing McLaren, the WMSC was setting a precedent that “at this level of the sport and stage of the competition, would be highly inappropriate and detrimental for the sport”. Mosley, in agreeing to Macaluso’s request, revealed some intriguing details that the WMSC took into account when it heard McLaren’s defence last week.

Among these “suspicious elements”, as Mosley put it in his reply to Macaluso, was McLaren’s claim that an alleged tip-off by the former Ferrari mechanic, Nigel Stepney, to Coughlan over Ferrari’s flexible floor design was the only information McLaren received in March.

In a statement released late last night McLaren said: “Whilst this is both disappointing and time-consuming, McLaren is confident that the FIA International Court of Appeal will also exonerate McLaren and we will in the meanwhile continue to focus on our current World Championship programme.”

— Sebastian Vettel, the 20-year-old German driver, has replaced Scott Speed at Toro Rosso and will compete in the remaining races this season.