Sunday October 17th, 1999

Eddie Irvine and Michael Schumacher may be disqualified from the Malaysian Grand Prix, after finishing first and second. The FIA's technical delegate to Sepang, Jo Bauer, said the two Ferraris have failed to pass the technical tests after the race, since the deflector panels on their Ferrari's bodywork were deemed illegal.

In a statement Bauer released, he said: "Following the race car numbers three and four were checked for bodywork conformity. When checking the bodywork facing the ground (article 3.12.1) it was noticed that the upper parts of the deflector panels do not lie on either the reference or step planes. In my opinion neither car does comply up to 10 millimetres with article 3.12.1 of the 1999 FIA Formula One technical regulations."

No decision was made yet as to whether the two will indeed be disqualified, and the race stewards have called for the Ferrari management for a hearing. If the two are indeed disqualified, the points will be taken away and Mika Hakkinen will be crowned World Champion, pending an appeal by Ferrari.