British American Racing Managing Director, Craig Pollock, expressed surprise at news that Formula One's governing body, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), has today summoned representatives of the team to appear before a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Geneva on March 12.

The move follows British American Racing's legal challenge to the FIA regulation that requires the cars of teams competing in the FIA Formula One World Championship to appear in substantially the same livery. The matter was considered by the International Court of Arbitration, which announced its ruling in favour of the FIA position on Wednesday of this week.

British American Racing will be required to respond to allegations that the team breached Article 151c of the International Sporting Code and Article 25e of the FIA Statutes, rules that relate to the general conduct of teams participating in FIA-regulated events.

"We are completely surprised by this development," commented Craig Pollock. "We have made the point all along that we respect the full authority of the FIA to govern the sport of Formula One. We were not able to arrive at a compromise with the FIA over British American Racing's wish to run two different liveries on its cars this season, and therefore felt we had no choice but to refer the matter to the International Court of Arbitration for an independent ruling. On Wednesday, the arbitrators announced that their decision was in favour of the FIA position. We were naturally disappointed at the outcome, but stated that we fully accepted the ruling and would abide by it.

"In all of this, I believe we have conducted ourselves in a fair and honourable way toward the sport of Formula One in general and the FIA in particular."