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FIA at it again

9 December 2007 | 15:41 by Wolfie
Filed under: Motorsport

This story adds more fuel to the fire of the inconsistent nature of rulings by the FIA, the ruling body of Formula One motorsport.

In case you’re not aware, earlier in the year the FIA fined McLaren-Mercedes - who were then leading the Constructors Championship - $100 million and excluded them from the Constructors competition for being in possession of technical information from Ferrari, their major championship rival. It was not proved that McLaren had used any of the information in their possession to later their car or gain a performance advantage and Ferrari were shown to have been just as deeply involved as McLaren but only McLaren were punished.

It was later shown that Ferrari had run an illegal car in the first race of the season, but no punishment was made. If - as happened with Honda a couple of season ago - they had been docked their points, Kimi Raikkonen would not have been world champion this year.

McLaren are also going to be under intense scrutiny for 2008, with FAI President Max Moseley saying that “Finding something will not be easy. On the other hand, there are sources we are going to deploy who will give us as good a chance as its possible to have to find it.” Which says to me that McLaren might as well pack up and go home, as they haven’t got a hope of not getting penalised for something this season.

But now Renault are the subject of the FIA’s inconsistency. It seems that they obtained McLaren techincal data back when an ex-McLaren employee joined the team. It has been suggested that they did use the information gained to alter their car, but - apart from being found guilty of the charges brought against them - they have not been punished. They did the same thing McLaren were accused of, there was apparently more evidence against them, and they get away without punishment.

I’ve become very cynical about Formula One, the FIA and Max Moseley over the course of the 2007 season and it seems to me that everything done in the sport is done to serve the interests of Ferrari. I’m sure Max Moseley would argue that this is not the case, but lets see him prove it by having a bit of consistency with the application of the rules. Otherwise, the 2008 season is not going to be worth watching.

Tags: Motorsport