The FIA have rejected Red Bull's appeal against the disqualification of Daniel Ricciardo from the Australian GP.
In an unexpected development, Mercedes, represented by Paul Harris QC, called for an additional punishment to be meted out against the World Champions in the form of a deterrent against further infringement.
"We are frankly concerned that Red Bull have shown such a flagrant and deliberate disregard for the rules," said Harris. "There is a real risk that they will do it again. We must have a level playing field. The most effective way of ensuring that Red Bull do not flout further written and oral instructions from the FIA for at least the remainder of this season is for this court to recognise the severity of their infringement and to impose a further sanction upon them."
Reinstatement would have propelled Red Bull into second place in the Constructors' Championship, 58 points behind runaway leaders Mercedes, ahead of this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.
The FIA's statement in full:'On 16 March 2014 the panel of the stewards decided to exclude car N°3 (driver Daniel Ricciardo) from the results of the race as it was found to be not in compliance with the Technical Regulations (the Technical Delegate reported to the Stewards that car N°3 exceeded the required fuel mass flow of 100kg/h).
'On 20 March 2014, the Österreichischer Automobil-Motorrad und Touring Club - Oberste Nationale Sportkommission für den Motorsport (ÖAMTC-OSK) on behalf of its licence-holder, Infiniti Red Bull Racing, decided to appeal this decision before the International Court of Appeal
'Decision of the International Court of Appeal
'The Court, after having heard the parties and examined their submissions, decided to uphold the Decision N°56 of the Stewards by which they decided to exclude Infiniti Red Bull Racing's car N°3 from the results of the 2014 Australian Grand Prix.
'The International Court of Appeal was presided over by Mr Harry DUIJM (Netherlands), and included Mr Rui BOTICA SANTOS (Portugal), Mr Philippe NARMINO (Monaco), Mr Antonio RIGOZZI (Switzerland) and Mr Jan STOVICEK (Czech Republic).
'The full decision will be available on the website by the end of the week.'
Red Bull's statement in full:'Infiniti Red Bull Racing accepts the ruling of the International Court of Appeal today. We are of course disappointed by the outcome and would not have appealed if we didn't think we had a very strong case. We always believed we adhered to the technical regulations throughout the 2014 Australian Grand Prix. We are sorry for Daniel (Ricciardo) that he will not be awarded the 18 points from the event, which we think he deserved. We will continue to work very hard to amass as many points as possible for the team, Daniel and Sebastian (Vettel) throughout the season.
'We will now move on from this and concentrate on this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.'
