Oct.28 (GMM) BMW-Sauber's Nick Heidfeld says he doubts that McLaren will succeed at its controversial appeal date next month.

The 30-year-old German is among the four drivers who stand to be demoted or excluded from the results of the recent Brazilian grand prix for alleged fuel temperature discrepancies.

But when asked whether he expected the Court of Appeal to overturn the stewards' Interlagos decision, Heidfeld said on the weekly sports programme ZDF-Sportstudio: "Going by what has happened before in appeal situations, probably not."

Should the BMWs and Williams' be kicked out of the race classification, Lewis Hamilton may retrospectively move up to fifth place or higher and be crowned world champion ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

But Nick Heidfeld protested: "We were not illegal, because we were not punished. If we had done something wrong, we would have been."