McLaren And Ron Escape Yet Again.

World Motor Sport Council - Decision26.07.2007
:An extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council was held in Paris on 26 July, 2007. The following decision was taken:

“The WMSC is satisfied that Vodafone McLaren Mercedes was in possession of confidential Ferrari information and is therefore in breach of article 151c of the International Sporting Code. However, there is insufficient evidence that this information was used in such a way as to interfere improperly with the FIA Formula One World Championship. We therefore impose no penalty.
“But if it is found in the future that the Ferrari information has been used to the detriment of the championship, we reserve the right to invite Vodafone McLaren Mercedes back in front of the WMSC where it will face the possibility of exclusion from not only the 2007 championship but also the 2008 championship.
“The WMSC will also invite Mr Stepney and Mr Coughlan to show reason why they should not be banned from international motor sport for a lengthy period and the WMSC has delegated authority to deal with this matter to the legal department of the FIA.”

Ronny 'ol boy, you are one lucky bugger.

Will McLaren Be Punished Tomorrow By The FIA?

The big question is will McLaren be punished tomorrow for holding onto Ferrari documents?

The following is courtesy of Reuters London. I will update as soon as the decision comes down.

Timeline of Formula One's spying controversy:

LONDON (Reuters) - McLaren will appear before Formula One's governing body on Thursday charged with unauthorized possession of Ferrari technical information.
The following is a timeline of Formula One's 'spying' controversy:

Feb 1 - Ferrari test and technical manager Nigel Stepney says he is open to offers from rival teams after expressing unhappiness at recent management changes following the departure of technical director Ross Brawn, his compatriot and friend. Stepney is subsequently moved away from the race team.

June 21 - Ferrari start court action against Stepney, which spokesman says is 'related to his behavior', in Italian city of Modena.

June 24 - Stepney accuses Ferrari of waging a dirty tricks campaign against him and protests his innocence.

July 3 - McLaren announce they have suspended a senior technical employee after confidential Ferrari information is found in a search of his home.
Newspapers identify employee as chief designer Mike Coughlan.
Ferrari says they have brought legal action against Stepney regarding the theft of technical information. Stepney is dismissed, denies wrongdoing.

July 4 - McLaren say that, after a thorough investigation, none of the leaked Ferrari information has been used on their cars and invite Formula One's governing body, the International Automobile Federation (FIA), to carry out a full review.

July 6 - Honda issue statement confirming Stepney and Coughlan had approached them looking for jobs. The team says they have not been offered any Ferrari information.

July 8 - Stepney, who denies sending information to Coughlan, tells British newspapers he has left Italy, saying he fears for his safety there after having his car followed.

July 10 - London High Court hears Coughlan "behaved disgracefully" by copying and keeping documents belonging to Ferrari.
Ferrari spokesman reveals that case centres on two computer discs believed to contain a total of 780 pages of Ferrari information.

July 11 - Coughlan provides Ferrari with an affidavit 'relating to relevant facts'. Ferrari agrees not to forward it to the Italian criminal authorities.

July 12 - FIA charge McLaren and summon representatives to an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Paris on July 26.
McLaren issue statement saying they are 'extremely disappointed'.

July 16 - In response to speculation about who knew what at the team, McLaren issue another statement to emphasize nobody at the team was aware before July 3 that Coughlan had the Ferrari information.

July 20 - McLaren submit full dossier to FIA ahead of Thursday's hearing

Alonso Wins European GP At The Ring – Now Thinks He Is God.

WELL WELL WELL…
Slacklonso picked up a win yesterday afternoon due to the weather and everyone else’s mis-management of the race. When the lights went green Hamilton went from 10th to 4th by the first corner and damn near had 3rd from old Alonslow. Unfortunately he then cut the second tire of the weekend and immediately fell back in the pack.
Next up was the rain on lap 2, and what a downpour it was. Car’s left and right hydroplaning off the track with a good half dozen of them all in the same runoff area.


Fortunately, Lewis kept his motor running and didn’t get out of the car. Thus, the rules permitted him to be craned back to the track and he rejoined the race much to the utter dismay of the other drivers who hopped out of their cars thinking their race was done.
The race was then red flagged until the rain stopped. Upon the restart it was things as usual until Kimi’s engine cut out and he was done for the day.
Now come the last 10 laps. Alonslow is closing in on Massa like no tomorrow. They have an excellent massive duel for first place, very tight but very fair, the track is half dry and half wet. Massa can drive away from Slackhead in the dry but can’t do a thing in the wet. Massa’s wheel actually touches the side pod of the McLaren while going through one of the corners. Beautiful driving and control by both drivers. Alonslow wins, and then we go backstage as it were, to witness one of the most Smug, I’m king of the realm, bow before me loyal subject pieces of bullshit I’ve ever seen by a second rate hack driver. The Spaniard, who earlier in the weekend had an on-track altercation with his Brazilian rival, then confronted Ferrari's Massa and told him that he objected to his racing style. This is how it went down.
A few minutes before the traditional ceremony, Ferrari's Massa approached McLaren's Slowlonso and shook his hand in the room adjacent to the podium. The following conversation ensued in Portuguese.


Alonso: "You can't do things like that."
Massa: "What are you talking about?"
Alonso: "Don't play smart with me, you know very well. You hit me on purpose, you turned the wheel to push me off."
Massa: "What? Go fuck yourself!"
Alonso: "You fuck off! Next time I'll push you into the wall."


Alonso, decidedly in a provocative mood, turned and smiled at the live TV camera like he was God as Massa walked away very upset, his dark mood still quite apparent during the podium ceremony.Once tempers had calmed down as the post-race FIA press conference began, Faglonso admitted that he had once again over-reacted.

Your god damn right you over-reacted idiot, for you to go off on Massa like that when all he did was come over to congratulate you on your race win is quite simply unacceptable to the N’th degree. Once again you decided to display your childish un-champion like behavior because you seem to think that everybody should part like the sea Moses parted when you come along on the track. Here’s a neato idea Mf’r, try working hard for your championship just once. People will try and give you some respect if you do.

See you on Aug 5th in Hungary.

Ferrari Dominate Friday At The Ring.

1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m33.339s

2. HAMILTON McLaren 1m33.487s

3. MASSA Ferrari 1m33.590s

4. ALONSO McLaren 1m33.637s

5. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m33.668s

6. TRULLI Toyota 1m33.746s

7. ROSBERG Williams 1m33.845s

8. BUTTON Honda 1m33.880s

9. HEIDFELD BMW 1m34.146s

10. KUBICA BMW 1m34.221s

11. WEBBER Red Bull 1m34.235s

12. WURZ Williams 1m34.264s

13. SATO Super Aguri 1m34.357s

14. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m34.411s

15. FISICHELLA Renault 1m34.431s

16. KOVALAINEN Renault 1m34.446s

17. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m34.504s

18. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1m34.554s

19. SPEED Toro Rosso 1m35.320s

20. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1m35.653s

21. SUTIL Spyker 1m36.527s

22. WINKELHOCK Spyker 1m37.319s

Raikkonen Wins 2nd In A Row For Ferrari

Raikkonen and Ferrari delivered another stunning victory yesterday at the British Grand Prix. That’s two in a row for Kimi. When all that gets distilled down it means that Ferrari are benefiting from having fixed their wind tunnel problem and Kimi is finally getting on with the job he is being paid to do. Let me tell you it’s about time too.
After the race both Kimi and Alonslow had some differing views on whether the better car or the better strategy won the British Grand Prix. It was easy to tell who was the winner and who was the loser.
ALONSO: "Maybe I was slightly quicker forgetting the fuel loads that we saw today. And in the race they were slightly quicker, maybe starting in front of them was just enough to win the race or maybe not."
RAIKKONEN: "It doesn't make any difference anymore. I was first, you were second."

To me that sum's it up beautifully, here you have Alonslow making any kind of excuse so as to deflect away from his shite driving and car setup, and Kimi laying down the law of the land. Make no mistake, Alonso is starting to get very very deep in the trouble pit as it were. Heh heh heh.

Lewis on the other hand made several very small mistakes, the biggest of those being when he almost repeated the Albers pit stop from the previous weekend. All told, he was under probably the biggest whirlwind of pressure he will face all season being that it was his home race etc… He has also vowed to raise his game from now on, which can’t be good for Alonslack, because Lewis leaves Britain with a healthy Championship lead and we are now past the halfway point of the season.

Well done Lewis on your Ninth straight podium finish.

See you all at the European GP on the 22nd.
Ciao

Photo's courtesy of Sutton

McLaren’s Budget Goes Here While Lewis Races For Peanuts.

The following is courtesy of McLaren:

The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team is proud to unveil its new facility. The Brand Centre. This has been conceptualized, designed and built to present the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes brand to Partners and their guests and further enhance their race weekend experience and once again set the standard for paddock hospitality.

The Brand Centre:

* Will appear at all the European Formula 1 races.

* Will take approximately 20 people two days to erect.

* Is three stories high and within the parameters set by Formula 1 Management.

* Was designed and built by Bischoff+Scheck based in Baden Baden Germany.

* Has a 13.5 metres environmentally friendly solar glass façade at the front.

* Has nine 63-inch plasma screens to ensure optimum presentation of images and data.

* Has a total of four meeting rooms – one with video conferencing facilities and eight offices.

* Has separate rooms for Fernando and Lewis to relax in with state-of-the-art wireless games consoles linked between rooms, MP3-docking stations and showers etc.

* Cost has been covered by the three main parties in the team; Vodafone, McLaren and Mercedes-Benz and its cost will be absorbed over five years.

* Has 20 office spaces for marketing and media workers, in addition to wireless network throughout the facility.

While this monstrosity might look really slick and impress the chosen few punters who get to go behind the ropes, I think that the money would be better spent going towards the further development of the team. Don’t you?

Ferrari Delivers Master Class 1-2, Lewis On Eighth Successive Podium.

Kimi Raikkonen and Massa set the pace last Sunday in France with a beautiful 1-2 finish. Lewis Hamilton managed to stay atop the podium in third, continuing his perfect 100% hit rate of top Three’s every race this season.

Alonslow had trouble all weekend long and started a lowly tenth on the grid but finished slightly in the points. He now trails Hamilton by 14 points and if the gap gets any larger, and Ferrari stay on the sharp end, he will have to start supporting Lewis’ bid for the Championship.

One big piece of drama came during a Team Spyker pit stop when Christijan Albers drove away with his fuel hose still attached, subsequently knocking over some of the Spyker pit crew. Actually, he damn near ripped off one guy’s head. Albers admitted he had been at fault for the pit stop disaster that ended his French Grand Prix. The next day the stewards of the race fined him several thousand dollars.

Now it starts to heat up folks, next up, Britain on the 8th. See you all there.