McLaren: We had no choice
Filed Under: F1 News
McLaren have announced that they felt they had no choice but to appeal the stewards’ decision not to penalise Williams and BMW over fuel irregularities. Martin Whitmarsh, CEO of McLaren, has said that the media and public would have unleashed a barrage of criticism against the team had they stood back an accepted the decision without question.
“We were surprised at and don’t really understand the stewards’ decision,” Whitmarsh explained. “Therefore we feel that it we hadn’t lodged our intention to appeal, we would surely have been criticised by fans and Formula 1 insiders alike for not supporting our drivers’ best interest.”
Whitmarsh is keen to dismiss and speculation that their appeal is a veiled attack against Ferrari. “I want to stress that our quarrel – if you can call it that – is not with Ferrari or Kimi Raikkonen,” he continued.
“No, on the contrary: Kimi won the race fair and square and Ferrari did a good job to finish first and second. Our argument is with the stewards’ decision in relation to the cars of Rosberg, Kubica and Heidfeld, hence our decision to lodge our intention to appeal.”
Meanwhile, it has been revealed that even if McLaren do successfully overturn the stewards’ decision not to penalise the trio, Hamilton may still not win the 2007 drivers’ world championship.
The stewards originally chose not to punish BMW or Williams when their fuel was found to be too cold. Cool fuel has two main benefits – more fuel can enter the car due to fuel being denser, the cooler it is, and cool fuel also gives a minor power boost. The stewards found that there was insufficient evidence to prove that the fuel that entered the cars was too cold hence the lack of punishment.
Article 168 of the International Sporting Code states that it is at the stewards’ discretion as to whether lower placed cars are moved up the rankings in the event that cars above them are disqualified. This indicates that even if the appeal is successful and Kubica, Rosberg and Heidfeld are disqualified, Hamilton may not be moved up the rankings from seventh to fourth and hence the title would still remain with Raikkonen.
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jc tyler | Oct 25, 2007 | Reply
So Ronnie didn’t have a choice? Come ON. It’s the end of the season, it sounds stupid, you could have had a quiet word with everybody during the winter, might have lowered your penalty a bit and now what? Made an ass of yourself. AGAIN. What was your New Year’s wish? Fall over your own feet as much as you could? Hey, you won. Big time. Never seen anyone trip up so badly as you this year. Just goes to show what money can buy. But then you were always good at raking it in. And the best rakers nearly always built the best cars. But that was when you still grabbed to go Racing with a capital R. Nowadays you seem to use the money ALSO for racing, but primarily to do one Max Mosley number after the other. You know, shooting oneself in feet and all that. Maybe that Haug boy has been around a bit too long… but what do I know? Remember how you felt and thought at the time you signed young Lewis? Back to your roots, don’t worry, you’ll still be making plenty, but maybe you’ll learn racing again.
Ah yes, I was going to say, what a cheap number to go complain about that fuel thing. You know you’re talking garbabe. What made you become so thick? Been inhaling those fumes one time too many? Is that how you sniffed it out that they got a 1/1000th per lap advantage with fuel too, er, cold? Get an ice cream, Ronnie.
salak | Oct 27, 2007 | Reply
I don’t believe a word. They want to play a trick on Formula1 and Ferrari because of their own disastrous year. They want to have the last word. But they’re only making themselves cheap once more.
And even if BMW and Williams did have some advantage, it would be unfair if Hamilton won the championships. Raikkonen’s victory is unquestionable as he surpassed them despite their ‘cold fuel’. Raikkonen, Massa and Alonso had no problem with them: Hamilton and McLaren had better knock it off.