Back in July, the German Grand Prix and Ferrari in particular, were the subject in a blog of mine entitled "Team Orders, or In Germany We Have Ways of Making You Win" http://jameswright42.blogspot.com/2010/07/team-orders-or-in-germany-we-have-ways.html.
It has now been decided that the $100,000 fine for "what happened" in the German Grand Prix is enough of a penalty after the FIA's World Motor Sport Council sat on Wednesday to review the "happenings".
This should not come as a huge surprise to anybody who knows anything about the FIA and F1 of recent years and I say this for three reasons...
1 - Ferrari International Assistance
The FIA has a recent history of letting Ferrari get away with anything they have done, while penalising other teams for everything they do, so on this basis the FIA were never going to penalise Ferrari any more than they had to. You could say that having Jean Todt in the FIA seat of power wasn't going to help this situation, or you might have hoped that the ex-Ferrari puppet master had taken all the secrets to the governing body, poacher turned game keeper, and would bring in a change of attitude. In this instance Todt was not directly involved but must have had an influence, and due to his role in the sport how are we to believe anything else?
2 - Regulations that are un-enforceable!
Regulation 39.1 bans team orders...
With this regulation in the rule book no team is ever going to get on the radio to their driver and say...
"Your team mate, our number 1 driver, who has more points than you, is behind you. Please slow down, let him overtake you and protect his position for the remainder of the race, as we want him to win the race not you."
You may hear...
"(driver name) is running half a second a lap faster than you" OR "you are currently 3 tenths of a second slower than the car behind you" OR "the leader is lapping at a 1 minute something something, you are doing 1 minute something else." This is a reasonable set of information for a driver to be told at various times over the course of a race.
However for a team to say, "your team mate is faster than you blah blah blah..." to their driver is obviously a very specific phrase used for a very specific reason. To follow it with "Sorry", along with the driver and crews demeanour after the race says it all!
Now if you heard this and thought the message meant anything other than "you are not quick enough , sorry I have given you a useless car" you are obviously incorrect, or so Ferrari would have you believe.
What the Motor Sport Council have done is uphold the fine, therefore agreeing (you would think) that the regulations were breached, but imposed no additional penalties, bar making Ferrari pay the costs of the judicial procedure, which surely they would not be made to pay were they innocent. So if you break this regulation a fine is enough of a penalty, no points loss required, no exclusions, not even a probationary period.
With the championship as close as it is, $100,000 is a small price for teams to pay if they manipulate the results of a race to put there top driver ahead for the sake of points. Put it another way, if the same thing happened at the last race of the year and influenced the Championship results, the team would have to write a cheque for the small (to an F1 team) amount of $100,000. The driver would keep the position, keep the points and the rewards associated. Sounds good to me, cheat and keep the spoils for your efforts but pay out a small cheque for the honour!!
OR If the council has decided that there was not enough evidence to convict Ferrari of breaching this regulation, why maintain the fine if you can not prove they did anything wrong! I think have an answer for that...
3 - No BALLS!!
The question is, do the FIA want to allow team orders in F1?
If we assume for one minute that the FIA wants to promote "racing" in F1, as they keep saying and have backed up by the team orders regulations' existence in the first place, then the answer must be NO!
If this is the case why then do they send mixed messages with the "fine but can't prove they did anything wrong" routine. Want to stop team orders? Exclude the two drivers and the team from the meeting, and put them all on probation for the remainder of the season! Message sent, you cheat you get thrown out!!
If the regulation is not enforceable then introduce a regulation in the style of NASCARs, "Actions Detrimental to Stock Car Racing". This allows you to penalise any team or driver if you consider their action to have a negative effect on the sport. Oh hang on, ever heard of "Bringing the Sport into Disrepute"? If a team rigs the outcome of a race, you could exclude them under this regulation, or fine them by the way. However this style of thinking does not fit in well with a sport run by lawyers as there may not be sufficient "evidence" to convict the driver or team even if the entire world knows exactly what happened. That and you would need the "balls" to do it in the first place!!
Reviewing the Regulation
However, if F1 think team orders are a part of the sport, why is the regulation in the rule book in the first place? The problem is, the regulation is in the book and for this season that's the law... or apparently not!!
The Motor Sport Council have requested the rule makers review the regulation for next year. You will never be able to prove in a court of motor sport law that team orders exist as no team will ever use the words. In a sport run by lawyers, the regulation was doomed from the start. However the Council have upheld the fine! If they are happy that Ferrari breached the regulation, and are therefore satisfied with the evidence, why review the regulation? If Ferrari used team orders and they have been found guilty, the rule works doesn't it?
Feeble Incident Assessors???
Farcical...
Oh good, thanks for that!! I await the full explanation with breathe that is baited.. honest...
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