F1 News – Ex FIA Boss Max Mosley: Ferrari Should Be Stripped Of Points
Max Mosley, who once governed the FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile), has added his voice to the Ferrari team orders controversy, saying the Italian side should be stripped of points for issuing team orders at the 2010 German Grand Prix earlier this year. Mosley said that Fernando Alonso - one of the five main title contenders this year - should ideally lose the twenty-five points he bagged for taking the winners trophy in Hockenheim last month. Mosley’s comments come as the World Motor Sport Council’s (WMSC) verdict over Ferrari’s breach of regulations in Germany looms nearer.
The Scuderia side found itself at the centre of considerable controversy when driver Felipe Massa was ordered by his race engineer, Rod Smedley, to slow down so that his teammate Fernando Alonso could take the lead in Germany. Although Smedley’s request to Massa was meant to be a veiled message, the FIA and Formula One fans worldwide refused to be fooled by the Italian side’s failed attempt to disguise its blatant disregard for the rules that categorically ban the use of team strategy that favours one driver over the other. Massa was leading the field at Hockenheim when he was asked to let Fernando Alonso overtake him, enabling the Spaniard to strengthen his chances to win this year’s championship title.
Ferrari’s actions in Germany provoked widespread criticism and the German Grand Prix race stewards immediately slapped the Scuderia with a monetary fine and then referred the case to the WMSC for further deliberation. Among those who expressed their disappointment at Ferrari’s tactics is ex-FIA boss, Max Mosley, who said the rules must be respected by all. While Mosley conceded most teams on the Formula One grid would like to see the troublesome ban over team orders stripped, he said that as long as the regulation was in place, it had to be respected by all.
Mosley’s comments were echoed earlier by veteran Ferrari driver, Niki Lauda, who did not mince his words over his former team’s actions. Lauda remarked it was a shame Ferrari had not let Felipe Massa seal a well deserved victory in Germany, particularly as the Brazilian driver was returning from life-threatening injuries. Massa missed a large part of the 2009 Formula One season after a freak accident at the year’s Hungarian Grand Prix left him bedridden and unfit for action. The Brazilian made his comeback to the sport in 2010 and was gradually regaining the form that made him a Grand Prix winning entity. Although Massa insisted his accident had not changed him as a driver, Formula One analysts could see the mishap had sapped the Brazilian’s on-track confidence. In Hockenheim, when the world saw Massa returning to his winning ways and proving that he was truly back, Ferrari ordered the recuperating racer to relinquish the victory to his teammate Alonso. Although both Alonso and Massa chose to remain tight-lipped over the matter, it did nothing to pacify the outrage of fans who protested they had been denied the entertainment of a true racing spectacle.
McLaren boss, Martin Whitmarsh, and Red Bull principal, Christian Horner, publically decried Ferrari’s actions, vowing never to resort to team orders. Horner said he felt for the fans, who had been the real losers in the whole saga, warning that if such tactics went unpunished, the sport at large could suffer in the long run. Martin Whitmarsh too had some reassuring words for Formula One spectators; team orders were certainly a dubious championship winning strategy, he said. McLaren driver Jenson Button agreed with his boss, saying he would quit the sport if he ever had to sign up as a number-two driver. Judging from Max Mosley’s comments, the picture does not look too rosy for Ferrari as far as the WMSC’s word on the Hockenheim controversy is concerned. The Ferrari top management, meanwhile, has defended its actions, categorically asserting that the team had done nothing wrong and accusing the wider Formula One community of “hypocrisy”.
Tags: