F1: FIA dicision on Mclaren.

[leviathane]

So what do you guys think of the FIA's dicision to fine the team $100million and "ban" them from the constructors championship?

 

[NikonL]

Havn't seen the "evidence" yet so I'm not going to be a McClaren fan boy and say "omg they can't possibly be guilty, it's a conspiricy" etc. But on the the other hand, I find it so odd that McClaren are getting punished THIS harshly, and yet Ferrari get away scot free :/ I mean the whole point Ferrari was trying to push was "You are responsible for your personell" But it was THEIR man that started all this in the first place? 0_o Puzzling. Very Puzzling.

Unless it turns out that Lewis Hamilton masterminded the whole thing, I'm still rooting for him to win the WDC though.

 

[Litmus]

Voted servers them self right.

 

[Samaroon|Terracotta]

What happened? :E

 

[Overdriven]

Supposedly sent a spy to other teams or something.

 

[Mauness]

i think it jsut go to show, that everyone bends over backwards for ferrari the moment they complain about something.

 

[Gahn]

i think it jsut go to show, that everyone bends over backwards for ferrari the moment they complain about something.

Would love to see your judgement if it was the other way round

 

[Imgormiel]

I know the whole scenario, the decision as it stands without explanation is OTT. The FIA are going to explain their decision later this afternoon. Regardless of it, it's still way OTT. McLaren appeal inc tbh.

 

[Himse]

F1 is fucking boring with all these new rules

They just end up follow eachother round the track, well especially at the front, if the camera's stayed on the middle it would be a bit more interesting to watch! The start is the best bit.

If you watch the superbikes, now thats a race.

 

[Marc]

Its the only decision they could make to be honest. If they had stripped the drivers of their points it would hit F1 hard, as no one would turn up to watch the remaining races. No one cares about the constructors championship so by stripping mclaren of their points, they punish them, yet it doesnt harm the remaining races.

 

[Hawkwind]

Got bored with the sport years ago. Governing body is interested in 1 team only, Ferrari. When Williams were ahead they banned every advantage they had so others could catch up. Tbh a sport that allowed itself to be run by a complete wanker deserves to dwindle into insignificance.

If I were Mclaren I would pull out of F1 altogether and go states side.

 

[Gibbo]

Agree with the above poster, if this was Ferrari in the dock they would have got their wrists slapped and told not to do it again.

There would have been no fine, no points docked on the scale that Mclaren got.

Ferrari would have played the "we'll leave F1 if you fine us" card.

 

[Olgaline]

wasnt it a guy who was fired by ferrari or at least was an ex-farrari, who was pissed off at ferrari and sold some material to mclaren ?

you can hardly blame ferrari for that now can you ? thats like blaming a guy for a robber getting hurt while trying to steal from him.

not that i watch F1,
find it very very boring tbh. "exept the start + 2 laps"

 

[Imgormiel]

wasnt it a guy who was fired by ferrari or at least was an ex-farrari, who was pissed off at ferrari and sold some material to mclaren ?

you can hardly blame ferrari for that now can you ? thats like blaming a guy for a robber getting hurt while trying to steal from him.

not that i watch F1,
find it very very boring tbh. "exept the start + 2 laps"

Nope, two guys in two companies who shared information, then left the companies to go to another with that info as a ruse for them to join that new company. Either way, collusion is collusion but it should have been defined and kept to the two employees being sacked and nothing more.

 

[Corran]

Well the whole decision is out... and now I think i could do with changing my vote from saying it was right if not OTT.

Judging by what has been said they had so much knowledge they could have easily been kicked out hte competition. I would assume that the only reason they have not done so is that since Hamilton/Alonso started battling this year the viewing figures have gone up, and without Mclaran it would be pointless watching the races.

Will prove an interesting close to the season, lets hope Hamilton can win though as it appears Alonso was deeply involved in trying to gain extra advantage but from what I seen so far (from summary, got to read the full report still) Hamilton had no part in it.

 

[Ctuchik]

i think it jsut go to show, that everyone bends over backwards for ferrari the moment they complain about something.

yes but this time they actually had something to complain about.
and imo this fine wasn't enough. should expel them from the competition all together for a few years imo.

 

[Saggy]

This poll is missing the "no, they deserve much more" option :S Ban from this season and revealing all the secret information McLaren has to everyone would serve them right (would do good for whole F1, too).

 

[NikonL]

One thing that does occur to me.. Ferrari clearly don't think that the McClaren car has "used" the information they've obtained, else they would be kicking up a fuss and saying "No, McClaren can't drive their car anymore this year". Which means that they were objecting simply to the fact that McClaren was in possesion of the documents. Now while that does clearly deserve punishment, does being in possesion really deserve THAT MUCH of a punishment? Especially if people like Ron Dennis genuinely did have no idea what was going on (I'm not suggesting this was the case).

 

[Velimos McDuff]

interesting thing on all this is the fact people forget to mention Honda in all of this .... stepny brawn and couthlin all had a "privet" meeting with Honda.. the reason? Honda is at the back of the grid and not challenging ferriari. The FiA are in the italians pocket, yes Mclaren did get the information but they didn't use it on the car, which relay means they did nothing wrong.

Another great thing is the fact the FIA over look toro roso and super aguri, useing redbull and honda chassis iligily, customer chassis are not ligalised untill next year. but, again they are not at the front of the grid and don't get in the way of a certian team...

The punishment on McLren was utter bull, the fine yes ok thats fine but the exclusion from the constructors is OTT. considering the shizzle ferrari gets away with *the bendie rear wing at the start of the year anyone? oh so iligal but thats ok they did not understand the rules so we won't do anything, infact we feel so sorry we will give them a fruit basket to apologies for our rule writing*

 

[Jiggs]

No, you're wrong. It really has nothing to do with Ferrari.

Alsono tried to use the spying evidence as leverage to get Maclaren to make him No1 in the team. Ron Dennis called his bluff by blowing the lid on it. He effectively handed his own team in.

And get your history straight: when the advances of Williams were banned....Schumacher won with Benneton. Nothing to do with Ferrari. After that they dug deep into Fiat's pockets, got the best driver (Schmacher) built the team around him and started winning races. Not much favouritism involved; they simply poured a ton of money and expertise into their team and bulldozed their way to the front.

Finally, I hate F1 these days, it is a boring procession of hyped up drivers.

 

[Velimos McDuff]

And get your history straight: when the advances of Williams were banned....Schumacher won with Benneton. Nothing to do with Ferrari. After that they dug deep into Fiat's pockets, got the best driver (Schmacher) built the team around him and started winning races. Not much favouritism involved; they simply poured a ton of money and expertise into their team and bulldozed their way to the front.

and who else was in Benaton? half of the current ferriari Staff. Schumacher braught with him to ferrari. the thing is with ferrari it's just that bloody todt brawn and Di Montezemolo (speeling on that i have no idea?)

and when they make statements like this after wining a GP can you realy say Ferrari (the top men in it not the innocent mechanics and designers and so on) arnt wankers and didnt have anything to do with it?

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo dedicated his team's Belgian Grand Prix triumph on Sunday to an employee at an English photocopy shop.
"It's a perfect victory, for which I want to thank Raikkonen, Massa, (team boss Jean) Todt and all these guys," he said after Finland's Kimi Raikkonen led Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa across the finish line.
"I want to dedicate it to our fans who believe in the fairness of the sport and to this English gentleman who in the month of June wanted to inform us that someone linked to an opponent team entered into his shop and asked him to copy dozens of pages containing technical information about our car.
"Without him it would never have been possible to shine the light on to one of the worst pages in the history of motorsport," he added.

 

[Ctuchik]

yes Mclaren did get the information but they didn't use it on the car, which relay means they did nothing wrong.

no but they knew what Ferrari was gonna use and could build their strategy around those facts. which is exactly the same.

still think their "punishment" was way way cheap.

i mean, 100 million dollars? thats nothing for a corp that big. and while the point reduction might hurt it's really not that much of a punishment. tho Mclaren might say so to not get something that WOULD hurt.


like a total ban from all racing for 10 years.

 

[NikonL]

like a total ban from all racing for 10 years.

wouldn't that make f1 even more fun! wow and ferrari win for the 10th year in a row because noone can challenge them. wow. shock.

i'd prefer it if every single bit of every teams data became public domain. that would even things up a bit.

 

[ilaya]

teams been spying on each other for decades ffs, how else do you think they all got the same changes for the next season?

this one just been publicised.. and you notice its all alonso texts? he's a sad little bastard who cant stand being beaten by a young upstart.. would not be suprised if he leaked all this himself coz he's on his way next season anyways.

as for banning mclaren? ban the leading british team in a sport run by a british bloke and the leading driver is a brit? like to see what would happen next...

someone is spitting their dummy out coz their team/driver isnt winning.. thats all. Lewis Hamilton has put the shits up everyone coz they know he's gonna dominate the sport for years to come.

 

[Rookiescot]

What I dont understand is that it would appear that Ron Dennis informed the FIA of the situation as soon as he found out about it.
Seems astonishing that they would hand out a massive fine to a team that ultimately tried to be open and honest.
The FIA seem to be saying that Mclaren are responsable for their employes actions. Surely then Ferrari are also resonsible for their employes actions?
The two people involved in the transfer of the documents should be punished but why punish only one of the two teams involved?
If Mclaren did not gain an advantage from the documents existance what are they guilty of?

 

[Ctuchik]

wouldn't that make f1 even more fun! wow and ferrari win for the 10th year in a row because noone can challenge them. wow. shock.

i'd prefer it if every single bit of every teams data became public domain. that would even things up a bit.

not really. the drivers will be the next issue then. and there isnt THAT many good F1 drivers out there.

and about ferrari winning everything if Mclaren got a 10 year ban. well atleast they dont have to cheat to succeed Mclaren obviously can't.

 

[NikonL]

Well atleast they dont have to cheat to succeed

You're totally naive if you don't think every team out there is doing the same thing as McClaren. Yes it sucks, and it's ruining the sport and I'd like to see the end of it. But the only way i can see it stopping is to make all information public, as i suggested before. If you're going to harp on about cheating, it's best not to stand behind Ferrari. Just look how much controversy and foul play they've been involved with over the years. Dirtiest team in the sport imo. Mcclaren may have been caught (and tbh, 90% of the people who go "OMG MCCLAREN CHEATZ?!?!" don't have the faintest idea exactly what McClaren did or didn't do), but you can bet your boots Ferarri has a can of worms it doesn't want opened somewhere.

 

[Golena]

I think they got the penalty spot on.

Banning McLaren would of been a stupid move. Even if they did deserve it legally the knock on effects of losing spectators would of hit every other team on the grid, and probably negatively effected the sport for years to come.

The way the punishment was handed out gave McLaren a good kicking in terms of publicity but didn't take away the title race that all the fans turn in every fortnight to watch. No-one really cares about the constructors title other than the mechanics anyway.

Ferrari now can't keep whining nothing was done despite their own employee being quite deeply involved, and we can get on with actual racing which is why people watch in the first place.

 

[Corran]

Constructors championship hits the drivers hard as well you got to remember, but not till next season.

Why?

1) They will only get 2-3 garages a race. Currently get 4-6. This means that they can not take as much equipments as they currently do.

2) They will be in one of the first pits upon entry instead of one of the last. This means that they will be out of position, especially on the final stage of qualifying.

Part 1 may actually not matter too much. Next season Mclaran got 2 teams all-be-it on by a different name. This other team is going to be using an identical car (if it passes FIA inspection as if they think there any Ferrari material influence they cant use the 2008 car) and wouldnt surprise me if they "share" equipment as the garages may even be next door to each other.
Mind you, be interesting to see what the FIA would say about that. Nothing to stop teams working together, afteral Williams etc actually sell their advancements to the crappy teams as they know they still cant challenge them even with it.

There is a bit more to it then this above but i cant be arsed now i started.. oops.

 

[Manisch Depressiv]

Hopefully the Germans can take over the team completly now so we can get some professionalism into it.