Tweet
I think it's pretty clear that FIA is out to get McLaren and Ron Dennis. It hasn't been proved that there even was any spying done. All that's been revealed is that de la Rosa and Alonso exchanged e-mail containing the information leaked by Stepney and Coughlan. There is no evidence that this information has been used at McLaren or even that McLaren is the instigator here. Both Stepney and Coughlan were applying for jobs at other teams before this scandal erupted. So it's entirely possible that they were going to use that information as a means to get employed elsewhere...
And FIA has been extremely erratic in it's decisions before. There is the famous case in 1994 - under Max Mosley's watch at the FIA - when Benetton walked scot-free from the World Council, despite admitting that it cheated by tampering with refuelling equipment. The FIA justified letting Benetton off the hook by saying that the filter had been removed by " a junior member" of the team. As part a cobbled together solution to avoid ruining the World Championship at the time Benetton boss Flavio Briatore agreed to make "substantial management changes" to ensure that there was no repeat of the incident.
A year later the Toyota rally team tried to use the Benetton defence against running illegal turbo restrictors - but this time the FIA World Council threw out the argument - and banned Toyota from the World Championship for the next 12 months.
"Toyota said the decision had been made at a certain level of the team and that the management had not known about it," Max Mosley said, "but the team has to take responsibility."
Roll on to 2003 and Toyota was again in trouble but the FIA did not care to involve itself in an espionage case brought by Ferrari against two former employees Mauro Iacconi and Angelo Santini who were later found guilty of industrial espionage in an Italian court. Santini was condemned to nine months in prison by the Tribunale di Modena, while Iacconi was given a 16 month sentence. Both prison terms were suspended. The FIA says that it did not get involved because it was not asked to get involved, but this ignores the fact that Toyota had already run into trouble with the federation and ought perhaps to have been punished for a repeat offence, something which the civil court did not take into consideration at all. Toyota has yet to receive any punishment for that.
And Thorgal... I find it amusing that a Ferrari supporter get on a high horse and accuse others of being fanboys. Ferrari is THE fanboy team in F1. Protected by fanatic supporters, FIA and the whole goddamn italian press... It's even more funny considering Ferrari doesn't care about the sport, only about winning. As seen at Indianapolis in 2005 and now, just to mention two incidents.
All in all this is a very sad ending to a season that has been the best in many years, possibly going back so far as the great battle between then McLaren drivers Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in 1989-1990 (even if the Alonso - Hamilton battle isn't nearly as dirty and unsportsmanlike).
And FIA has been extremely erratic in it's decisions before. There is the famous case in 1994 - under Max Mosley's watch at the FIA - when Benetton walked scot-free from the World Council, despite admitting that it cheated by tampering with refuelling equipment. The FIA justified letting Benetton off the hook by saying that the filter had been removed by " a junior member" of the team. As part a cobbled together solution to avoid ruining the World Championship at the time Benetton boss Flavio Briatore agreed to make "substantial management changes" to ensure that there was no repeat of the incident.
A year later the Toyota rally team tried to use the Benetton defence against running illegal turbo restrictors - but this time the FIA World Council threw out the argument - and banned Toyota from the World Championship for the next 12 months.
"Toyota said the decision had been made at a certain level of the team and that the management had not known about it," Max Mosley said, "but the team has to take responsibility."
Roll on to 2003 and Toyota was again in trouble but the FIA did not care to involve itself in an espionage case brought by Ferrari against two former employees Mauro Iacconi and Angelo Santini who were later found guilty of industrial espionage in an Italian court. Santini was condemned to nine months in prison by the Tribunale di Modena, while Iacconi was given a 16 month sentence. Both prison terms were suspended. The FIA says that it did not get involved because it was not asked to get involved, but this ignores the fact that Toyota had already run into trouble with the federation and ought perhaps to have been punished for a repeat offence, something which the civil court did not take into consideration at all. Toyota has yet to receive any punishment for that.
And Thorgal... I find it amusing that a Ferrari supporter get on a high horse and accuse others of being fanboys. Ferrari is THE fanboy team in F1. Protected by fanatic supporters, FIA and the whole goddamn italian press... It's even more funny considering Ferrari doesn't care about the sport, only about winning. As seen at Indianapolis in 2005 and now, just to mention two incidents.
All in all this is a very sad ending to a season that has been the best in many years, possibly going back so far as the great battle between then McLaren drivers Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in 1989-1990 (even if the Alonso - Hamilton battle isn't nearly as dirty and unsportsmanlike).
Comment