FIA Verdict For McLaren F-1 Team

[LarryG]

Bye-bye constructors' points, bye-bye $100 million.

http://www.f1-live.com/f1/en/index.shtml

Boy, when those guys impose a fine, they impose a FINE, don't they?!? A hundred million bucks ... that'd be enough to run Spyker for the next three seasons (or Toyota until the first pit stop at Spa this weekend).

[gwyneth]

That should pinch even old Malcolm.

Look at it this way: it's another way of equalizing competition (the older a race formula gets, the more creative the rules-makers have to be).

I love the uniquely formula-centric legal reasoning behind the McLaren denial:

"Throughout the affair McLaren have pleaded total innocence, maintaining that not a single component on their MP4-22 car owes anything to the leaked dossier".

I.e., we did it, but it didn't help, so cut us some slack.

[ragswl4]

I heard on the news this morning that the Patriots football team has been caught filming defensive hand signals of the opposing team to try to decode them to their advantage. Teams are not allowed to have video cameras on the sidelines.Apparently the Patriots didn't read that part of the rules (twice). The question begs to be asked: Why would such a successful fanchise resort to breaking the rules for this kind of information?

Of course I doubt they will be fined or suffer any substantial penalty. If more professional sports were fined $100 million for this kind of conduct I wonder how long it would be before it stopped? 10 microseconds is my guess.

I am sure the $100 million fine will end up in court.

[gwyneth]

I am sure the $100 million fine will end up in court.

FIA (sanctioning body) exerts much more control than you'd expect. While individual athletes in other sports have some recourse to playing elsewhere, the F1 teams don't--and undoubtedly participants have agreed that FIA's word is final on stuff like this.

It will, however, probably be reduced somewhat after the fuss dies down, or FIA will "compromise" by dropping the fine and keeping McLaren out of the constructors championship. Ferrari had been second in constructors' points to McLaren, whose points for this season have now been docked.

BBC Sport estimates that after prize money for this season is subtracted from the fine, it's reduced to about half.

[Knottscott]

I heard on the news this morning that the Patriots football team has been caught filming defensive hand signals of the opposing team to try to decode them to their advantage. Teams are not allowed to have video cameras on the sidelines.Apparently the Patriots didn't read that part of the rules (twice). The question begs to be asked: Why would such a successful fanchise resort to breaking the rules for this kind of information?

...which begs for another question to be asked: Are they such a successful fanchise because they've been resorting to breaking the rules all along?