McLaren called before WMSC again: what will their punishment be?
Lewis Hamilton will be heading back to the World Motor Sports Council once again
Some developments are met with such little surprise they barely even qualify as ‘news’. The FIA summoning McLaren to appear before the World Motor Sports Council surely meets this criteria.
The team are being called to explain why they misled stewards about Lewis Hamilton allowing Jarno Trulli past under the safety car in the closing stages of the Australian Grand Prix.
It doesn’t take a cynic to see the result is a foregone conclusion as the team has already been found guilty once. But what will the punishment be, and why haven’t we seen the ‘disrepute’ rule being used for similar infractions?
The punishment
McLaren faces charges under article 151C of the International Sporting Code, that it has brought Formula 1 into disrepute – the same charged it faced over ‘Spygate’ two years ago.
On that occasion McLaren received a staggering fine of £50m ($100m at the time, though the final sum paid was less) and was excluded from the constructors’ championship.
Having been warned off further transgressions at the time, they could face an even harsher punishment at the hearing on April 29th. If the FIA do this, it is vital that not only the minutes of the WMSC meetings are made public, but also those of the original stewards meetings (if there are any – it has been suggested none are taken). F1′s reputation would suffer more harm if McLaren were perceived to have been subjected to a kangaroo court.
Notably absent from the FIA’s list of charges is any claim that McLaren brought a false appeal against Trulli, which has been suggested by some. This is because they did not, as the FIA’s documents makes clear:
The stewards, having received a report from the race director, have considered the following matter, determined a breach of the regulations has been committed…
Australian Grand Prix document 69
You can find the original document in the F1 Fanatic drop.io: aus09-document-686970-pdf
Dave Ryan
McLaren has admitted not telling the truth and today formally sacked Dave Ryan, the sporting director who had been with the team for 34 years. But questions are still being asked about where else responsibility lies within the team – whether with Martin Whitmarsh or Lewis Hamilton.
McLaren’s acceptance of the WMSC summoning was effusive in its promise of co-operation:
We undertake to co-operate fully with all WMSC processes, and welcome the opportunity to work with the FIA in the best interests of Formula 1.
And gave a clear hint their defence will be that Dave Ryan was responsible and they have taken the appropriate course of action:
This afternoon McLaren and its former sporting director, Dave Ryan, have formally parted company. As a result, he is no longer an employee of any of the constituent companies of the McLaren Group.
If that is their case, they will have to make abundantly clear they can prove it.
Lewis Hamilton
There has been much speculation about what effect this might have on the future of Lewis Hamilton. Will he, like Michael Schumacher in 1995, quit the team where his reputation has been tarnished by unsavoury allegations?
I have two thoughts on this comparison. First, how often did McLaren make these visits to the World Motor Sports Council before they promoted Hamilton to race driver in 2007? Quite rare, actually – certainly not as often as they have been since.
This just an observation of a pattern and not proof of anything. But it was interesting to see an FIA spokesperson suggest the governing body views Hamilton as a victim in the matter after his admission of guilt:
We recognise Lewis’s efforts to set the record straight today. It would appear that he was put in an impossible position.
Second, leaving Benetton ultimately did nothing to save Schumacher from having a reputation for, to put it mildly, being a bit of a scoundrel. More on that in a moment.
Disrepute
There have been a few occasions of teams being charged with bringing the sport into disrepute in recent years.
Before ‘spygate’ the most famous as Ferrari’s infamous use of team orders in the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix. The team were fined $1m – but that was for their drivers’ behaviour on the podium, the FIA specifically rejected the claim that the use of team orders brought F1 into disrepute (before banning them in 2003).
After McLaren the most recent team to face the charge was Renault, when it was accused by McLaren of using its intellectual property in the same way McLaren had been found guilty of using Ferrari’s. The FIA found Renault guilty but gave it no punishment “due to the lack of evidence that the championship has been affected.”
The truth
Misleading, obfuscation, whichever euphemism you prefer, there have occasions in recent years when prominent F1 individuals have given questionable accounts but not faced a similar investigation.
In 2006 Michael Schumacher denied he had deliberately stopped his Ferrari during qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix to impede his rivals. The stewards rejected his explanation, one remarking with incredulity: “He lost control of the car while travelling at 16kph! That’s something completely unjustifiable.”
The only difference between Schumacher and Hamilton on these occasions was that Schumacher failed to convince the stewards he was telling the truth. So are McLaren actually being punished for the Australian Grand Prix stewards getting their original judgement wrong?
Last year McLaren tried to appeal Hamilton’s penalty in the Belgian Grand Prix. The FIA claimed former permanent steward Tony Scott-Andrews had changed his mind about another incident which McLaren intended to cite as precedent. When McLaren approached Scott-Andrews he informed them the FIA’s point of view was, “grossly inaccurate and misleading”. Who here was not being straight?
I am not making a case for McLaren’s defence. The sacking of Ryan is a clear acceptance by the team that they had discussed what to do behind the safety car at Melbourne, took the wrong decision and, when asked by the stewards, denied what they had done.
But I am suggesting perhaps they are not the only people in F1 who have not been entirely clear about their version of events in the recent past, and not the only ones who have brought F1 into disrepute.
Are Mclaren guilty or innocent? What role did Lewis Hamilton play in all this? What punishment should they receive? Have your say in the comments.
The McLaren appeal date and many other important F1 dates can be found in the F1 Fanatic Calendar for Google.
MartinWR said on 9th April 2009, 19:30
I read many comments on this sorry saga with utter disbelief. The underlying assumption behind some letters seems to be that F1 cannot survive without Lewis Hamilton. Give me strength, F1 existed for decades before little Lewis was even a gleam in papa’s eye, and it will continue for decades after he hangs his boots up.
Certainly he brings a lot of publicity to F1, but is it for the right reasons? Should F1 be a “sport” which is characterised by unsporting shenanigans and the like simply because those shenanigans bring in billions for Ecclestone? I know publicity means money, yes, and Ecclestone apparently thinks there is no such thing as bad publicity, but is F1 really any better for all the billions, yes billions, that have been ploughed into it over the years? Honda alone reputedly spent more than two billion, for virtually no significant return. All those billions never made the racing more exciting. Most years and most races, F1 racing tends to be processional, mainly of interest to petrolheads and techno buffs.
The Malaysian race was a very good example of what F1 has descended to. For no more than unabashedly money-grabbing reasons it was held at a time, late afternoon, when the locally prevailing weather conditions virtually guaranteed that it would end as a total unmitigated disaster halfway through, if not much earlier. It’s lucky that no-one was injured as a result as well, because the conditions were no less than diabolical for the drivers.
Anyway, I cannot begin to imagine what the other F1 drivers think of Hamilton’s lies which originally bought him an extra point, and cost Trulli six points (until eventually corrected), and also made Trulli look like a liar. For the life of me I cannot see how they can possibly view him with anything other than contempt for that behaviour. And he is supposed to be “world champion” as well, a role model!
On top of that, in order presumably to save the sport from the calamity of losing this gilded youth, the WCMS have decided not to even investigate him for lying. The excuse for not doing so is the assertion from McLaren that they told him to lie. Yet McLaren have lied about everything else, so how can the WMSC possibly use that statement as the very basis for the structure of this investigation? The very fact that McLaren have managed to effectively excluded Dave Ryan from the hearing (because they sacked him) stinks to high heaven. What on earth are they frightened that he might say to the WMSC? Is it possible that he might even say that he didn’t tell Hamilton to lie, or something similarly earth-rending, which might even result in the imminent destruction of the whole solar system? Whatever they are trying to hide, the whole of the “sport” hierarchy are clearly unable to contemplate an outcome which would involve actually punishing a grown man, who unbelievably is supposed to be a “world champion” ae well, for telling lies, or untruths, porkies, or misspeakings, or whatever politically correct gloss you care to put on what he did.
Sri said on 13th April 2009, 8:04
Bravissimo!!!
The Limit said on 9th April 2009, 20:48
The punishment handed out to McLaren, whatever it maybe, means nothing compared to the damage done to its credibility as a team. The same applies to Lewis Hamilton, and he knows it!
This will linger like a black cloud over the rest of Hamilton’s career. His integrity as a person has been called into question, and everytime he becomes involved in a controversial situation, his views and opinions will not carry as much weight.
You only have to look at other sports, like football, for a comparison. The referees know exactly which players to watch and which ones not to, the ones more likely to dive than others. They just know, certain people carry with them that reputation.
Lewis Hamilton set out his stall early. He made it quite clear that he was out to win, no matter what, and took no prisoners in the process. There is nothing wrong with that at all, it is in his nature, and that is just that.
The first corner incident at Fuji last year was a classic Hamilton moment, braking so late in an effort to pass Kimi he nearly took half the field into the boonies! He has that confidence, that arrogance, and sometimes it comes back to bite him.
I just don’t buy the fact that Dave Ryan was completely to blame in this shambles, and Whitmarsh can
say whatever he likes, it just does not add up. Hamilton had a choice at Albert Park, and he chose to withold information in order to gain an extra point.
If the decision was so ‘uncomfortable’, why not tell the truth and keep a certain fourth place. If McLaren kick up a fuss, so what! Would they fire Hamilton if he
disobeyed team orders? Would Whitmarsh fire the current World Champion? Ofcourse not!
The only outcome of this is McLaren’s exclusion from the 2009 constructors championship.
Oliver said on 9th April 2009, 21:37
MartinWR,
You may need to read what Ralf Schumacher had to say about the affair. Ralf a recent F1 pilot is of the view that this is a fairly common thing. The team often comes up with the line the drivers have to stick with.
I’m amazed people keep saying that a man with over 20years in the sport, who knows all the intricacies and the politics would be blameless in the matter. Ryan has the experience, and most of you should be ashamed for making him appear to be the naive individual who went on with this reluctantly.
As far as I’m concerned either of 2 thing happened.
1) The team arrived at the decision to withhold information and Ryan conveyed that information to the driver.
2)Ryan realizing he had cost Mclaren a podium decided not to reveal that he had radioed that Trulli be let past.
Ryan was the first to be questioned by the stewards, everyone seems to want to forget that.
Hamilton’s driving doesn’t make him a cheat. How many times did Damon Hill crash into Micheal Schumacher taking both out of the race? Did that make him a cheat?
CeeVee777 said on 9th April 2009, 22:11
What everybody seems to be overlooking in all the fuss about who said what to whom is the huge hole in the FIA processes for controlling a race. There is no-one who seems to have the responsibility or authority to determine what the correct order is behind the safety car whilst the safety car is still on track. The rationale for the safety car is to neutralise the racing so that the incident can be safely dealt with. Why then can’t, for instance, the nearest timing loop be used to determine race order and this is the order that the cars will restart irrespective of any pit stops or off-track excursions. The FIA need to come up with a simple and definitive process for determining and organising the order of the race cars behind the safety car that can be quickly transmitted to the teams. The safety car shouldn’t be withdrawn until the cars are in the correct order. It shouldn’t be left up to the teams to try and second-guess an after-race stewards decision.
SYM said on 9th April 2009, 23:00
Ok this is late, but i feel i ought to post an explanation to my rants. The case for ‘racism against Lewis and McLaren’ is not a simple one, and boys/girls in Gorilla suits is too easy an example to point to, so is the various anecdotal evidence in terms media coverage and unfair penalties and other off shoots (LG in Tag Hauer out)… ok i’m rambling, the point is i believe, and i’m not the only one, that Lewis and McLaren are not given equal treatment, or at least they haven’t in the past, and that is not sporting. The current situation is a result of past abuse by FIA, where this time McLaren has gone the extra mile to stay out of trouble and found themselves dropped in it, FIA decision to push Trulli back, and then complied with the FIA decision, again in order to avoid farther antagonism; and we know the result.
The FIA is incompetent, malicious and is the real source of trouble here, as well as being responsible for pushing a highly respected man like Dave Ryan to commit a mistake under duress and force him into early retirement as well as attempting to destroy the reputation and career of a great racer; Lewis Hamilton. The reason they keep doing this is because they can, because nobody says anything. I love this sport and i’m sick and tired of this garbage and all i’m saying is if the fans get that message to Bernie and his MaFIA that we are tired of the behind the scenes rubbish, then maybe we can get to enjoy what we came to enjoy…. racers putting on great show on a level playing field!
SYM said on 9th April 2009, 23:02
Or maybe we get what deserve
scunnyman said on 9th April 2009, 23:58
WHY DO MOST PEOPLE HERE THINK THAT, JUST BECAUSE DAVE RYAN WAS FIRED BY MCLAREN THAT CANNOT BE CALLED BEFORE THE WMSC.
CRAZY……………………………
The Limit said on 10th April 2009, 1:09
@Oliver.
I don’t really think anybody is suggesting that Ryan is an innocent party here. Its just hard to believe that this disastrous decision was Dave Ryan’s alone.
Lets not forget 2007′s spy scandal. Serious questions were asked at the time about how much top McLaren people like Ron Dennis and Martin Whitmarsh knew about the stolen Ferrari data. The way the story was conveyed, one was led to believe that Mike Coughlin was the only real McLaren employee responsible of wrong doing. This was, and still is, incredibly hard to believe.
The response to the spy scandal is remarkably simular to the Australian debacle. Ryan, like Coughlin, takes the bullet and interteam stability and order are
restored. Fines were handed out, and almost certainly will be in this case, but the leadership at McLaren will remain untouched.
The truth of the matter is that McLaren, as a team, knew what they were doing. Ryan may well have been the man to inform Hamilton of what to say, but that does not mean that it was his sole idea.
To use Martin Brundle’s words ‘temptation got the better of them’, and I agree with his opinion. Dave Ryan is as guilty as Lewis Hamilton, and certainly as guilty as Martin Whitmarsh. I would have more respect for McLaren if Whitmarsh had followed through with his idea of offering his head on a silver platter.
At the end of the day, he is incharge of the team, not Dave Ryan. The buck stops with him and only him.
Oliver said on 10th April 2009, 2:04
THE LIMIT
It’s a good thing you mentioned the 2007 spy scandal. In that instance, Coughlan was suspended and remained suspended for an extended duration. This would imply there was some Mclaren staff involvement in the spy scandal. However, Ryan was sacked just a few days after this affair came to light. You don’t just throw away a respected member of staff that has worked for over 30years.
Another point, the drivers are managed, they hardly go to stewards without a senior member of staff to accompany them. They are often briefed on what they may and may not say. The key issue here is if Ryan improvised on the agreed statements to be presented.
I also have the opinion that Mclaren has a void between its management and the operating officers.
kaushal said on 10th April 2009, 6:53
Dave Ryan and Lewis deliberately lied to FIA stewards.. SO expecting some kind of ban or punishment on 14th April
F14EVA said on 10th April 2009, 11:24
Having read and followed the unfolding of the event over the past 2 weeks my feelings are that Mclaren and LH will get the book thrown at them. Unfairly of course but I guess we have to prepare ourselves for this saga to continue, watch the headlines move to Tuesday’s “diffuser” meeting then hear Ferrari moan and groan as the diffuser’s will be allowed to remain, Chinese GP then Liargate!
The politics in this sport are becoming ridiculous, how many of you watched the Malaysian GP and then checked 24 hours later that the result remaind the same and that no one was punished??
Back to “Liargate” I feel Mclaren will be excuded from Constructors Championship, 10 miliion Euro Fine, Lewis reprimand i.e. do it again and you will be banned for 12 months! – He will still be able to compete in driver’s championship as ratings would decline sharply, the FIA will hang them out to dry, and Max would have finally got his revenge on Ron Dennis.
MartinWR said on 10th April 2009, 13:06
Oliver, thanks for the Ralfie info. We inevitably must come back to the question of the Nuremberg Defence, so I have to say that however much McLaren may have pressurised them to lie, it makes no difference, they lied, full stop, and they must be held responsible for lying. Of course in the real world Ryan is being held responsible for what they both did, and paying with his job and good reputation. No doubt McLaren will look after him very handsomely for it, but that’s neither here nor there.
As for the gilded youth, he apparently long ago soared effortlessly above the Sport, and more importantly, above the Sporting Code, and can continue to thumb his nose at anyone who dares to think that he may not be God’s gift to Formula One. After all he’s got a “bigger fan club than all the other drivers in F1″ and that’s all that matters, isn’t it?
Lisa Hicks said on 11th April 2009, 11:47
Could this constant persecution of Hamilton simply be all about revenge, and punishing Ron Dennis for whipping up the tyre scandal in the American Grand Prix a few years ago, before Lewis’ time?
Or, perhaps Ecclestone and Co. want to discredit the sport in the eyes of UK fans so fewer people attend the UK Grand Prix this summer – then he can justify dropping the British Grand Prix completely- which he has wanted to do for many years – because there is MUCH more money to be made abroad?
As a longtime supporter and fan of F1 racing, the Communitarian stewards and their mad “rules” are turning me and all my family right off this sport. It is such a shame too, it could have been so exciting and positive, instead I think they are killing this sport, actually!
Sri said on 13th April 2009, 8:26
@ Lisa Hicks
Ms. Hicks, i wish it were only that simple. I’am from India and even i want Silverstone to remain on the calendar, i’ll even sign a petition, if there is/ can be one(is someone up to the task???). Then again, McLaren and Hamilton suffer from what is commonly known as “foot in mouth syndrome”. They don’t think before they speak, ironical, given “Ron-Speak” is know to be wise and concise and precise. However, in the spy-gate as well as lie(r)-gate, the same has been evidently lacking from whatever quote coming from the team of his.
Hamilton is no martyr and it is quite evident, that he chose to lie, to gain a position and championship points. He is someone who now is distancing himself from the very team that he called and may be still does “family”! Smells like, erm, BS to me. He seems to me to be a man of convenience than conviction. I’ll say as much for lack of better way to describe behaviour of his in the current scenario.
Yes, even i’m disgusted why a team which is caught red-handed with a design document of opponent teams car is allowed to compete. Not only that, they actually let McLaren use the parts developed for ’08, given that they wouldn’t develop it. Does that sound fair to you? Well, it doesn’t to me!
I respect Sir Frank immensely, for what he stands for and what he believes in. I love the way he operates, always the gentleman. I’m rooting for team Williams to do better, and i sincerely wish they do. Now, if only McLaren were just as clean and may i suggest honest…
JD said on 11th April 2009, 16:14
Late to the discussion here…
The idea of all the recent WMSC visits by McLaren being correlated to Hamilton’s presence does not prove causation. I’d say it has much more to do with the dramatic uptick in performance of their car from 2006 to 2007.
This is a team that didn’t win a race in ’06, and didn’t even come close. At Indy literally they couldn’t get out of their own way. They go from that to having the best car in the field the next year after receiving the 780-page cookbook on how to build a winning car.
There were no diffuser interpretations to make such a sudden jump in performance. Nor were there any dramatic technical rules changes to cause a sudden shakeup in the pecking order. But McLaren went from midfielders to winners in a big, big way. If it not for the interteam squabble between the drivers, they would have locked out both championships.
After the ’06 season, something changed at McLaren. Really, it probably began after they signed Fernando Alonso a year in advance. They went from a highly capable but hard luck team to one that decided to win at all costs. Remember the McLaren doublespeak has also went through the roof in the same timeframe as Hamilton’s arrival.
Or maybe I should refer to it as the context-adjusted truth.
I disagree that if Hamilton left McLaren, his troubles will follow. Unlike Schumacher, Hamilton was not the driving force behind his team’s resurgence. At Ferrari, Schumacher brought in his own people and ran the show. He was known to make tactical decisions during races. No one in the team had to tell him how to conduct himself.
In contrast, when arriving at McLaren, Hamilton was a rookie and a bit naive at that. He was not, and maybe still is not, at the level where he could bring in his own management and technical staff or make strategic and tactical decisions.
No one could imagine Hamilton having the presence of mind to change teams for the benefit of his competitive situation. No, he allegedly wanted to change teams because of his emotional situation. However, Schumacher changed teams for his competitive situation after his debut race! Schumacher was born to be a ruthless winner. Hamilton was not. He is merely a fantastic driver with an irrepressible fighting spirit.
Comparing ’07 to ’08 peoples’ interpretation of Alonso went from him being an overrated, whining, petulant, prima donna to the consensus best driver in F1. If Hamilton were to leave McLaren, I would expect a similar change in his public perception.
Sri said on 13th April 2009, 7:45
@JD
Agree with most of what you said with disagreement over couple of things:
1)Hamilton could have chosen not to lie, which he claims that was led into. B0!!0c%$, he ain’t no toddler, whose diaper needs changing every hour or so, cos he can’t manage his affairs.
2)Hamilton had a signed and sealed contract with McLaren, which is why he couldn’t change teams, unless something goes amiss. If you thought, it was because he’s a better person, ROTFL, LMAO. Schumacher, yes, he was more a driving machine, but that was on track. Off the track, he’s known to be a different person amongst friends and acquaintances. Yes, he didn’t have a contract signed-up so he had options. Besides, he was paying for a drive at Jordan(Even Eddie Jordan admitted that he got Schumacher to drive cos he could pay) and he was offered to be paid and a better car at Benetton. That should answer some questions for you, don’t it.