The FIA International Court of Appeal have addressed an appeal by Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault, lodged at the beginning of the season, over Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota's 'unique' diffuser design, which they felt was illegal and outside the rules.

The issue of the controversial rear diffuser design, which the teams involved have insisted was well within the rules, have been hanging over the heads of the team principals who were worried whether the FIA would find it illegal. Any penalty meted out would effectively damage the great start to their season, especially for teams like Brawn GP.

In a press release, Toyota said, "Our team studied the wording of the new 2009 regulations in precise detail to ensure we interpreted them correctly. We also made full use of the consultation procedure with the FIA which was a helpful process to ensure our interpretation of the technical regulations was correct. Therefore we had every confidence that the design of our car would be confirmed as legal, firstly by race stewards in Australia and Malaysia and subsequently by the Court of Appeal."

All three teams are relieved that the issue can now be put past them. "This has been a challenging period for Formula 1 and I am pleased this issue is now in the past and we can focus on an exciting season on the track" said Mr Tadashi Yamashina, Chairman and Team Principal of Toyota Racing.

With the season heating up and Ferrari and McLaren experiencing disastrous results so far, we can expect to see them play catch up by modifying their own diffusers. A little too late, some might say but with both teams saying they are expecting a positive result this weekend from the improvements they have made on their cars, the Chinese Grand Prix might just be the start of the competition proper.