Boy, are these guys strict! When a NASCAR team is fined for cheating, we all "ooh" and "ahh" when the fine levied by the officiating body might be as high as $25,000 and a member of the team might be banned from races for five or six weeks. Formula 1 takes things a bit further. Today, the FIA, the ruling body of F1 racing, fined McLaren Mercedes, the leading team in the Formula One championship, $100 million, and the team has been excluded from the constructors’ title in the spying scandal that has plagued the sport all season.
The International Automobile Federation (FIA), the sport’s governing body, found McLaren (artwork of car) guilty of cheating by using data obtained from Ferrari, its main rival, to improve its own car, the federation said in a statement issued following a hearing in Paris. The team may continue to race, however, and its two drivers — Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, the top two in the points standings — will be allowed to keep their points and will be eligible for the driver’s title. It was the harshest punishment given to a team in the 57-year history of the sport. And almost definitely the harshest penalty ever handed down in any sport.
The federation said it had stripped McLaren of all its constructor’s points in the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship, and the team can score no points for the remainder of the season. The federation added that the team would not share in the sport’s revenue this season, either.
Should another team fail by the end of the season to score more points than McLaren currently has, then there will be no constructor’s title winner in 2007.
Ferrari (red car in photo) issued a statement saying that it was “satisfied that the truth has now emerged.” For its part, McLaren continued to claim that it had gained no competitive advantage from the Ferrari data.
Ron Dennis, who was near tears during a TV interview this past week when discussing the heated rivalry (some say "hatred") between his team's two drivers, rookie phenom Lewis Hamilton and defending two-time World Champion of Driving, Spain's Fernando Alonzo, was, we'd guess definitely in tears today when this Draconian ruling was handed down. Dennis, the director and part owner of McLaren, said, “Having been at the hearing today, I do not accept that we deserved to be penalized in this way.” Yeah, we bet, Ronnie.
Dennis said his engineering team of more than 140 people had testified that “they had never received or used the Ferrari information.” "We have never denied that the Ferrari information was at the personal home of one of our team members", said Dennis in a TV interview, "but it was never used to benefit the McLaren team". Yeah, Ron. Right-o, mate.
The spying scandal broke in early July, when Ferrari accused McLaren of using data given by a Ferrari employee to a McLaren employee to improve the quality of its racing car. The police had found documents regarding the Ferrari car in the English home of Mike Coughlan, McLaren’s technical director. Ferrari said it thought a former employee, Nigel Stepney, who had been frustrated by organizational changes at Ferrari this season, had provided the information to Coughlan.
At a previous hearing, on July 26, the International Automobile Federation found McLaren guilty of possessing the data, but it did not punish the team, because it could not prove that the team had used the information to improve the car. The federation said, however, that if new evidence appeared to show that the data had been used “to the detriment of the championship,” then McLaren could be thrown out of the series this season and also in 2008.
The Tyrrell team was removed in 1984 for various technical infringements, but Ken "Wood chopper" Tyrell's cars were not a threat for the championship as is McLaren. The Benetton team was suspended from two races in 1994 after its driver, seven-time World Champion of Driving Michael Schumacher, ignored a black flag requiring him to quit a race. In 2005, the BAR Honda team was disqualified from one race and banned from two others for using an illegal fuel tank. (Photo --- McLaren-Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton of the UK (l) and Spaniard Fernando Alonzo).
Although the decision destroys the efforts of McLaren to win its ninth constructors’ title, it allows the biggest story of the F1 season to continue unabated, that is, the battle between the McLaren drivers.
The McLaren team was founded by Bruce McLaren, a driver who died in a racing accident in 1970. It won its first team and drivers’ title in 1974. It has won seven more since, but none since 1998. It also won its first drivers’ title in 1974. It has won 10 more since, the last in 1999.
What do you think? Click on "comments" and l;eave us your thoughts ... Like, just where is McLaren going to come up with $100 million in extra cash? From the office "petty cash" box? From sponsor/owner DaimlerBenz? And they thought Chrysler was a bad investment!
The 60-year old Brit, Ron Dennis (photo, right), says the team will appeal the FIA's decision.
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