Quite ironically, the key culprits appear to be Alonso and De La Rosa – who are getting off scot-free.

On the other hand, the one who appears to have been most active keeping Ferrari information out of the company, Ron Dennis, gets punished (and in accounting terms as well as in reality, not receiving $ 100m is quite as damaging as being asked to pay them, in fact – see the Turkey example – it might have been better for McLaren if the fine had beeen a payable to FIA that they could have ignored, rather than a withholding about which they can do nothing).

This doesn’t do much credit to FIA.

If the car actually was dodgy, then yes, punishing the drivers too would make sense.

I don’t think it was, though. Even Ferrari has never claimed that publicly.

Ross Brawn has said that having access to Ferrari information would make a car faster by up to .5 seconds. Perhaps that is true if it was McLaren data too. In F1, every bit of info you have – technical or otherwise – may make a difference, and we are in position to judge exactly how much.

The other drivers are bound to be unhappy though as they are bound to feel the winner of the championship (which is going to be a McLaren driver, realistically speaking) has done so by cheating, and that’s the way it will look for years to come I would think.

No, it’s not, and I’m a Mclaren fan. If the FIA thinks the team gained from the Ferrari data, and the car is thus dodgy, then the position of the drivers in those cars is also dodgy and not representative. If Mclaren were using a 4-litre engine and the drivers shopped the team to the FIA, would they be allowed to keep their points with a car that was clearly outside the regs? No. The FIA has potentially allowed a driver to win a championship in a dodgy car as long as he grassed up his team. And the only reason they did that is that they knew if Hamilton and Alonso were removed from the WDC the backlash would have been so huge the sport would possibly have collapsed. The punishment is a fudge.

I’d rather have seen Mclaren banned altogether, because it at least would have said the FIA had the conviction to do something it felt it had to even if it ruined the season climax. But they didn’t.

That should save you about $100m.

If someone murders someone else and gets away with it, with the assistance of the courts, does not mean that it should happen the next time too. That does not make it right.

McLaren chief designer – not an umbrella girl, mind – had confidential Ferrari info. Not done, for whatever reason. When you find that out, the team is responsible under existing laws.

In fact, I believe offended McLaren fans should actually reuest FIA to take points away from the dirvers also. That seems to be the biggest worrry for some.

This is by no means a perfect decision in law. A perfect decision should mean the team and drivers are out, together.

Ah, and then, over coffee or beer, we can talk about natural justice. In that context, yes, did McLaren benefit, if they did by how much, how come drivers are exempted, how come Ferrari got away in the past, everything can be explored. Or how this is bad for Formula One. It is. Who is saying it is not?

But in this specific case, this is the right direction.

F1 is an extremely technical sport – and even knowing Ferrari strategy in parts can make a difference. Maybe.

This is all sad, not good for the sport, not good for fans… But lets not mix that up with the specific case at hand.

This whole affair is beginning to make a single chassis formula look attractive!! (No, I don’t actually mean that).

Ferriri International (aka FIA) does it again. They are the ones bringing the sport into disrespect.

I’d like to see them make another announcement justifying why when Ferrari has a quick word, the FIA reconvene the World Motor Sport Council on what appears at the very least to be weak evidence (according to the reports I’ve read the correlation in the rise of the number of e-mails sent between McLaren’s drivers, and text messages sent between Couglan Stepney) to overthrow a previous ruling.

They’ve been accused of favouring Ferrari before – now there must be very little doubt about that.