The legal spirit of sport

For the first time since the 1950s, an F1 Grand Prix team making its debut has secured first and second places, the Brawn team winning the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. Some believe that the team's domination of the race was due to their use of a special diffuser on their cars that is thought to give them a half-second per lap advantage over their rivals. Renault, Ferrari and Red Bull are challenging Brawn's right to use the diffuser, claiming that is is not within the spirit of new rules introduced for this season. Surely the diffuser is either legal or illegal? Rather than not being within the spirit of the rules, isn't it rather a case that struggling rival teams are trying to erode the competitive advantage that Brawn has achieved through innovation and a creative interpretation of the rules? May be motor sport, unlike say athletics, is as much about technology as it is the athlete, in which case, are Brawn there to be caught rather than legally challenged? Or is what Brawn are doing tantamount to cheating? Should they be stopped and forced to remove the diffuser, especially as they clearly have a strong advantage over other teams? Wouldn't it be better to start this new era in F1 with a level playing field and common agreement about what is and isn't acceptable?