McLaren has eight days to officially lodge its appeal against the Lewis Hamilton penalty decision with the governing FIA, the German news agency SID reported on Monday.

The news was confirmed by a spokeswoman of the Paris based body.

McLaren already announced its intention to appeal the 25-second penalty hours after the Belgian grand prix on Sunday, and the news was confirmed in the form of another team statement early on Monday.

The FIA's International Court of Appeal would then hear the appeal.

But it is suggested that the court's first task might be to assess whether the case is even admissible, because the Hamilton penalty was actually issued as a "drive through" that was unable to be served in the normal way because the incident occurred so late in the race.

Drive-through penalties cannot be appealed.

Referring to McLaren's appeal, an FIA official confirmed to the British newspaper The Times that he was "not sure if it would be admissible".

Source: GMM