Suspended Three-Race Ban for McLaren

[...m...]

...escaping by the skin of their teeth, it seems - mclaren were handed a three-race ban and then had it suspended on account of transparency and cooperation during the investigation...let's just hope that no further hijinks this season put the ban into effect...

McLaren Get Suspended Ban

[Spudboy]

I guess Bernie will be bummed they didn't get Ron Dennis' head on a plate.

[mikester]

Maybe now everyone can get down to racing

The whole thing was stupid and avoidable. McLaren - what were they thinking, trying to deceive the stewards, who no doubt already knew the answers (with telemetry, radio broadcasts and the ITV footage).

[elisesile]

They played the radio broadcast on Speed TV during the race, as did, I'm sure, the rest of the world press coverage! How could they have thought they could lie about it? I'm a Hamilton fan, but they deserve to be penalized just for the shear stupidity of the situation.

[mjf]

Losing the 6 points they gained in the race is a pretty heavy penalty to begin with. Having a deferred 3 race ban is still no joke. I'm willing to bet that this incident was influenced by the pressure that McLaren was already under to keep their nose clean. Now they have more!

I'm betting that on some level McLaren were concerned that if they admitted to having told Hamilton to pass Trulli that they would be blamed for setting Trulli up for a penalty.

Having listened to the tapes, I'm pretty confident they were not trying to screw with Trulli, they were just trying to play it safe after what happened last year.

So they had the mindset "avoid giving them any information that would let them think we did this on purpose, tell them nothing, the tapes will clear us".

A dumb plan, and one that cost them 6 points for that race, and possibly a further 3 race ban if they do anything else dumb over the next year. And it's pretty easy to drum something up if the stewards really want to press them on it.


Anyway, lets get on with the racing. Here's hoping that with the new budget caps we'll see a new Lotus team soon.

[shay2nak]

season's over

[BRTHTAKR]

If Ferrari were doing any good at all this season, there is no way McLaren would have received a suspended sentence. If however McLaren develop a competitive chassis this year, this suspended sentence will reappear.
That's my grassy knoll conspiracy theory.

[catapult]

There was no reason for the stewards to ask McLaren anything in the first place. They should have been able to clearly figure out for themselves what happened from the footage. This whole incident is and was a farce including giving a suspended ban.

[fitfan]

i just watch the pit footage, and the start - then fast forward to the last lap... F1 is losing my interest every year.

its getting just plain stupid!

kers is in, no wait... it optional, we want it out.

no pints, just medals - wait, i never got that approved, ok - never mind

stomp my nazi balls you slut,,, opps was that on tape?

we need to save money! ...lets change the formula so everyone has to re-engineer. no wait... thats too expensive.

hey i got it! ...lets make it a spec series!

...brilliant! now lets make all the offshore races at stupid times so europe gets live braodcast on prime time.

[tcnohead]

I guess I am not understanding the situation of said incident. Was Hamilton punished for letting the other driver pass or was he punished for passing? I am confused. Dont follow it much and tried to read the article.

[mjf]

Originally Posted by tcnohead

I guess I am not understanding the situation of said incident. Was Hamilton punished for letting the other driver pass or was he punished for passing? I am confused. Dont follow it much and tried to read the article.

Neither.

He was punished because when he was asked if the team ordered him to let Trulli pass he declined to volunteer all the facts, aka he lied by leaving details out. Subsequently he was excluded from the race, losing his 6 points, and the man that told him to lie was fired.

For "bringing disrepute to F1" (that's a laugh) McLaren were given a 3 race ban, but the sentance was suspended because of the management changes that have been happening at McLaren.

[Green Hornet]

McLaren got off easy -

They were very lucky this time

[elise24fps]

But the whole thing is ridiculous, stupid. Why do we have to be so lily white and pure all the time? Whatever happened to creative interpretation of the rules? I miss the old days. Too many rules, too many stewards, too many officials. Colin and Enzo would be screaming bloody murder and threatening to quit if this happened to them. Can't we just turn the clock back to the sixties?... No, of course not. But damn it, the whole issue is insane. Reminds me of grade seven in school.

"You're an *sshole"
"You're a c*nt"
"Are we done?
"Yeah"

[BRTHTAKR]

Sure they lied like caught schoolboys in the principals office. But the damn thing occurred because nobody on earth knows what to do during safety car periods. McLaren asked race control for some guidance, got nothing, everybody went trying to figure out what to do. This mess will only make that worse.
I guess it's better than NASCAR where there are so many caution flags that the fans have a higher average speed driving to the track than the cars have on track (this is actually true at Bristol races).

[Spudboy]

Originally Posted by mjf

For "bringing disrepute to F1" (that's a laugh)

Yea, and Max screwing the hookers in SS uniforms was what, just a fun PR trick? Friggin' FIA is so f**k'd up.

[MNlotus]

WOW! i did not expect that.