Ferrari escape any further punishment at WMSC hearing
The Italian formula one team, Ferrari has managed to escape any further punishment by the World Motorsport Council following the hearing in Paris. Ferrari appeared in the hearing after the team order controversy that took place in the German Grand Prix, this season, surfaced.
The World Motorsport Council decided to keep the $100,000 fine (65,100 pounds) handed to Ferrari after the German Grand Prix, and did not add any more sanctions or punishments to the team. FIA said that they will revisit the team order rules but for now would not charge the Italians with any further punishments.
FIA specifically said that the rules regarding team orders, where a team would ask one driver to favour the other were to be looked at after the meeting.
Ferrari were fined $100,000 at the Hockenheim circuit in Germany, where they had sent a coded message to their Brazilian driver, Felipe Massa to let through his team mate Fernando Alonso who eventually ended up winning the race.
Ferrari team Principal, Stefano Domenicali was present in the meeting and defended his team’s decision to hand out a message to Massa. Stefano had earlier said that he was confident that the World Motorsport Council would understand Ferrari’s point of view and not sanction any punishments.
Stefano, after the meeting said that, there was nothing to worry about for the team even before the hearing and as it turned out WMSC understood the team’s version of the incident. He said that it was never going to be major issue and it was the rival teams that had been making all the noise in order to get Ferrari in trouble.
Article 39.1 of F1 regulations was believed to be breached by Ferrari, that clearly states that any team orders that can influence the result of the race are not allowed. The former F1 constructors champion team was also charged with breaching the 15.1c article of Formula One’s rule book, which states that any conduct by a team that is believed to be fraudulent or against the interest of the race would be punishable.
The infamous words that were spoken on the team radio have become a regular fixture of newspapers and motorsport magazines. Rob Smedley, the team engineer at Ferrari got on the radio and told Massa “Alonso is much quicker than you, do you understand”. Massa did not respond by speaking but did slow down to let his team mate pass thorugh. The incident took place on the 49th lap of the race that had 67 laps. As Alonso made his way past Massa, Smedley once again got on the radio and said to Massa “ Good lad, sorry”.
After the race Ferrari faced huge amount of criticism not just from fellow teams but number of commentators and former drivers as well. Some went as far as to say that Ferrari had damaged the spirit of the game and its credibility.
Eddie Jordan, who is a veteran commentator for F1 said that, the move was very blatant and if at the end of the season Fernando Alonso manages to win the championship by 2 points, this incident will come back to haunt Ferrari and it will be a real shame.
However, Ferrari’s team principal Domenicali said that the instructions sent to Massa were only to make sure that he was aware of the race developments and by no means was he forced to surrender his position. He said that drivers are always updated on the race situation and then it’s up to them to make the decision that would be in the interest of the team.
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