BAR team boss Nick Fry said: “We’re examining our options. Our objective is to race this weekend.

“We have some of the best sporting lawyers in Britain and probably the world working on this now.

“If we’re to race this weekend we need to get some judgement from a court pretty soon on Friday.” First practice for the race starts at 1000 BST.

BAR reacted angrily after being banned for two races for running an underweight car at the San Marino GP.

“BAR Honda is appalled at the decision and asserts that the judgment is contrary to all of the evidence heard,” Fry said after the appeal court of the FIA, the world governing body, handed out the punishment on Thursday.

“The team proved it complied with the current regulations and the FIA now acknowledges that the regulations are unclear,” said Fry.

“While the International Court of Appeal rejected the FIA’s original accusations of fraud and deception, BAR Honda says that this penalty is wholly and grossly disproportionate.”

The ruling, which included a six-month ban suspended for a year, was the toughest sanction taken against a Formula One team for 20 years.

The team have been excluded from the Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix, and stripped of the 10 points Jenson Button and Takuma Sato picked up for finishing third and fifth at Imola.

There is no further internal appeal process open to BAR, but Fry confirmed he is looking at other legal means to race in Barcelona this weekend, raising the prospect of a civil court action.

But F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone said he felt BAR were lucky not to have been excluded for longer and warned Fry he would be unwise to sue.

“I thought it was a very fair thing to do to be honest. I feel they got off quite lightly.”