first post for a long time,
and as everyone else seems to have had a go, here's my 2 pence worth,
Part of the conditions of entry to formula one is that a team is responsible for the
actions of its employees
a mclaren employee was in possesion of confidential documents belonging to ferrari.
This was a breach of the regulations, therefore the team has to answer a charge.
In the end Mclaren were found guilty of this charge, a point which they dont dispute
with regard the contention with penalties (or lack of them)
whilst any punishment clearly must fit the crime, in law its all about precidents.
and FIA have already set their own precident when they let Toyota off for doing pretty much the
same thing.
a ban or deduction of points is a serious penalty and the FIA clearly did not have the evidence they would need to back up such a move if mclaren appealed or took the case to the high court (no doubt citing the toyota and spiker incidents).
indeed prior to the hearing one of the members of the tribunal admitted that actually proving that an advantage was gained was going to be almost impossible.
As a result, all they can be found guilty of is having the document in the first place, so the FIA has had no choice but to let them off and warn them of future conduct.
Judging by the comments on here fine would have gone some way to appease some people, i'm inclined to agree and i'd imagine mclaren would have accepted it.
However, we're back to previous cases again, toyota weren't fined, spiker weren't fined so on what basis should mclaren be?
with regards the movable floor. i actually find it rather amusing that ferrari don't want to push this issue despite it being pretty much the same situation.
ie, confidential technical information about the ferrari was passed to other teams(possibly through the same stepney coughlan connection)
but of course they dont,
in this case it was Ferrari that were cheating.
Mclaren/others found out about this and brought it to the attention of the stewards.
ferrari got off and don't want to push their luck.
(they destroyed the opposition in australia when their cars were using it and FIA could have go so far as to disqualified them from the result.)
and reading some of their comments on autosport, the words pot, kettle and black spring to mind.
Ferrari have historically been one of the most self centered and unsporting teams in formula 1.
(and i'm not just talking about the stuff that happend during the schumacher era)
now i'm not for a moment saying Mclaren are a bunch of angels(they clearly arent), but people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones
Its frustrating because this kind of thing is exactly what F1 doesnt need right now.
after the schumacher dominated yawn fests of recent years we now have a genuine 4 way fight for the title, no holes barred, everyman for himself.
its been fantastic to watch and is pulling back the fans who've switch off over the last few years.
yet all we've been hearing for the past month or so is this rubbish.
The stupidity of those who've cause all this is mind boggling, what were they thinking?
I can only hope that this is the end of it as far as mclaren are concerned and we can get on with watching what promises to be a fantastic end to the season without the threat of protests and points deduction hanging over it.
unfortuantly the italian legal system is now involved and I don't imagine that ferrari are going to let it go quietly(which i can understand, but i'd hope now that they are
going after the people involved rather than looking for penalties against other teams and drivers)
its clearly going run for months if not years.
very sad indeed.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2007 01:28PM by marwood82.