The World Motor Sport Council's decision to not punish Ferrari further has left a bitter taste in the mouths of many F1 fans. There are those that are screaming to the hills that Ferrari International Assistance has returned with Jean Todt now in charge of the FIA.
Article 39.1 is seen to be unenforceable by pundits, journalists and some fans because teams can just use coded messages, like Ferrari did in Hockenheim, to implement their wishes. David Coulthard has said on many occasions "any team that says they dont use team orders is lying".
But fans must be arguing that if Article 39.1 unenenforceable, then Ferrari broke the rule which states that no team shall bring the sport into disrepute. By doing this, Ferrari hurt the integrity of the sport and people are once again becoming disillusioned about whether the racing on track is genuine or not.
There has been no official line from any of the top teams but I can imagine that particularly Red Bull and McLaren will be seething. It now means that Ferrari still have an outside chance of winning the World Constructors Championship and Alonso's slim hopes of a third drivers title are alive by a thread.
There are some that will now point the finger at the stewards becuase the $100,000 fine that was imposed immediatley after the race left the WMSC with their hands tied because they couldn't repunish Ferrari. If they had just referred the matter to the WMSC then any decision would have been acceptable.
The question I pose is what if this had happened last year with Max Mosley still in charge of the FIA? Would they have escaped punishment? Or would Mosley have given them a stringent punishment due to his well known feud with the Italian team. With this years regime, I believe Jean Todt made the right decision not to sit on the panel questioning Ferrari due to his conflict of interests, but would he have given an opinion on the matter?
So where does this leave us in terms of Monza? Ferrari will be under the spotlight for all the wrong and right reasons due to the fact it is their home race but they will also have to bat off questions about the team orders again. McLaren and Red Bull will no doubt have a lot to say on the matter and Ferrari will be under more pressure than usual in their home race.
In terms of the integrity of the sport, I believe it has taken a massive blow. Ferraris Houdini like escape has left the championship in a manipulated state. For the moment, it looks like Alonso is falling out of the championship fight which would mean none of this matters in terms of this year. But in terms of the long term realtionship between Massa and Alonso? Who knows? Will Massa forgive Alonso and Ferrari? Will we see more incidents like this again just in a more subtle fashion? Will we see another Schumacher Barrichello type relationship? They are all interesting questions and ones we will wait to see answered in the future.
In terms of the team orders rule, the only logical action would be to scrap it and allow the teams to sign a contract promising not to use them. The rule was a reactionary one after Austria 2002 and one that wasn't thought through properly. Theres always been a lot of grey areas around Article 39.1 but there hasn't been an incident like this until now to raise the issue. It's good to see the FIA are looking at it.
Roll on Monza and lets see what the F1 soap opera has in store for us next.
No comments:
Post a Comment