Now thats true Must be quite bad for Hamilton, if he really wins the WDC this year, it will be spoiled by that affair... I wonder if it wasn't the best thing if (yes, I know the probability is zero) Ferrari wouldn't race any more this season. The average F1 viewer might today not even know of all the things that happened with Coughlan and Stepney, everyone would know about it if Ferrari retreated this year. And McLaren's championships would be worth nothing...
point a) - Maybe they didn't want them, or else could not afford the price of taking a peek. point b) - They didn't? I thought they named the chapter and verse, and it seemed pretty clear to me. I had no problem with their basic finding, but am still puzzling over why there is so much mealy-mouthing on actually setting a penalty.
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I do feel bad for Hamilton. This will cast a pall over all of the wonderful accomplishments this year. He is obviously a great driver in a very good car that was designed and built prior to all of this. Did knowledge of Ferrari strategy help a win or two? Possibly, but his skill in the car put him in a place to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, what has shaped up to be a great season will be tarnished forever - no matter what the outcome is. I am certainly a Ferrari/FM/RK supporter and would like nothing better than to see the boys overtake M-M on that track. Having said all that I feel the FIA should have leveled some form of penalty - WCC points (1 average race position points?) and a fine (to be distributed to other, less funded teams). CC
I doubt Ferrari is going to get a chance to look at the McLaren documents at all. IMO it doesn't really matter if Coughlan did show the documents to others in order for the information to be used to benefit McLaren. Since he read the documents, clearly he has an unfair advantage over Ferrari. Any "suggestions" that he makes to the team with regards to race strategy or any development of the car will be tainted by the fact that he was in posession of the stolen property whether or not he actually showed it to anyone else. Personally I'm not happy with the decision, while I don't think McLaren should have been docked any points or given any penalties that would affect the outcome of this season, they should have been given some sort of punishment for breaking the rules. The companies should be responsible for the actions of their employees. Ferrari started investigation of Stepney and reported their suspicions when they found out about it. Coughlan was only found out by accident at the copy shop. Unfortunately this hearing doesn't really bring anything to a close and there still is a lot that can happen with all the other ongoing investigations. Guess we'll just have to watch the fuel gauge and get a bunch of Ferrari 1/2's.
They said they violated one of the sporting regulations. The question I raised is the violation Coughlan's possession of the documents or that other officials at McLaren also knew of them and didn't report it? I know there were allegations made that others knew of the documents but as far as I am aware, this was raised solely in Coughlan's affadavit. Was this proven in the hearings? My guess is that the allegations of others knowing about the documents was not conclusively established and that the only provable fact was that Coughlan had the documents. If so, then the FIA's decision makes sense which is to cite McLaren for violating the rule by not adequately supervising Coughlan but not levying a penalty. This also makes sense of their statement that no evidence exists of Ferrari information being used but that if evidence arises in the future, the team could face subsequent penalties. The only thing that the FIA could legitimately penalize McLaren for is having an employee that violated the rules. Had there been definitive evidence of a McLaren cover-up then they would certainly have received some sort of penalty, a hefty fine at the very least. The absence of a penalty strongly suggests that the FIA did not find the violation for which McLaren is cited to be significant.
Off topic but an Excellent point; yes we leave this to the discretion of the driver now. If you want to restart your race just signal us by leaving your engine running otherwise we'll just tow you back in...
Unfortunately the rules are a bit fuzzy with regards to this, so we can't really condemn the actions of the marshals, only ask for a clarification of the rules. The getting the lap back has already been answered, it is in the rules with regards to the safety car being out.
The FIA said the violation doesnt appear to have influenced the championship and are taking action to ban the (now sacked) team member from FIA competition. They are not saying the rule isnt important, they are just not holding the team fully responsible, most of the blame is being assigned to the individuals.
As I believe it should be. It appears that this is exactly what some of us have been saying all along, the actions of two rogue employees conspiring to enrich themselves (or improve their position) without the knowledge or complicity of their respective teams.
+1 **** happens, but don't leave 50+ years behind for a one-off. There have been countless incidents where even Ferrari has pulled fast ones... BUT, will have to say, there should have been some 'wait-n-see' attitude to see what the major two persons played out like in the court of law. FIA's apparent rules of evidence are low.
+1 If your kid robbed a bank and put the dough on the kitchen table, should you as the parent be hauled off for bank robbery? I think too many people are letting their team spirt get in the way of logic. I bleed red too but I haven't seen any evidence that supports McLaren being held accountable for this. If anything Ferrari should be held accountable for having security unbefitting of an F1 team.
+1. What I truly believe really happened. On top of that we have the LH factor. Taking points of Britains current favourite son is hardly going to help the image of F1 in one of its largest (assumed) markets. So lets move on . Pete
Hmmm, I think Ferrari should be very careful here: All teams since the very first motor car race have gone out of their way to obtain information about their competitors. Ferrari if they continue with this direction are going to end up with egg on their faces, and more importantly make motor racing completely impossible from a logistics point of view: Heck are the cars of the future going to have to race hidden inside covers so that nobody can see any "important" details. Spying on your competitors is as much a part of motor racing as checking tyre temperatures ... and if Ferrari were audited right NOW they would have an enormous amount of information about McLaren, BMW, Renault, etc., their cars and their tactics ... they might not have "drawings" and the information might have bene legally gained, but it is still "confidential" information. IMO they should focus their energies in ensuring Stepney eats bread and water for the rest of his life, he is the one that broke the law! Pete
Horse sh_t. If McLaren wanted that information they would have used their own offce imaging equipment (copiers) to duplicate it - not send it out to Kinko's. This stuff about a McLaren conspiracy is just nothing but horse poop. Give it up Luca and get back to competing on the track.
Excellent point. This is now just Ferrari premadonaring (sp?) at their best ... and they wand Luca to run their country!!! ... crazy Italians! Pete
