>> Well the official report was that they were not punished because the 
>> fuel temperature could not be proved.
>
> Wasn't it at a lower temperature they could get more fuel into the tank?

No.

> Don't they keep a record of how much fuel is put in and then compare it to 
> the tank capacity? I mean if at X degrees the tank will hold Y and at X-10 
> it'll hold Z, bit of a smoking gun if they stuck Z in there.

This assumes the tank is filled to the brim - which it hardly ever is.  Most 
drivers made 2 or 3 stops during the race, IIRC most cars can do about 
60-70% race distance when filled right to the brim with fuel.

The main reasons for doing it are to speed up the refilling process and the 
engine also develops slightly more power on lower temperature fuel - but 
this effect is only for a lap or two before the fuel heats up to ambient 
temperature.

I don't know where the quoted temperature measurements come from, but 
presumably they were not reliable or accurate enough to actually make a 
disqualification.

>> But the funny bit is that McLaren are presumably asking for the teams 
>> concerned to be punished and have their drivers points taken away.  This 
>> is the McLaren who had all their team points taken away and narrowly 
>> avoided having all their driver points taken away too... they should be 
>> careful.
>
> Sounds like a 'why did we get hit and not them?'

But McLaren only got team points, not driver points, taken away for a much 
more serious offence.  They are campaigning to get driver points taken away 
from yesterdays race (so they can win the drivers championship), seems silly 
when they narrowly missed having drivers points taken away from their own 
team...

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