joemoia

to insure "equal" treatment of both Alonzo and Hamilton during the race weekend. Apparantly Alonzo's front tires were "inadvertently" over pressurized during qual at the Japan GP

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/formulaone/40937/

ghoffman

To paraphrase: Can't we just have a race?

John Shiels

imagine if something flies off the car

guess he won't be there next year

AU N EGL

Really? and to think McLearn would sacrifice one multi-million dollar car and multi-multi million dollar driver for their other multi-mulit million dollare car and driver combination?

Lets see and McLearn can absorb the 100 million dollar FIA fine, plus pay the huge bonuses to employees as if they did win the Constructors world championship? Something is very wrong here . . ..

JaxVette

Nah, there's nothing wrong here. It's F1. This is how the socialists, excuse me, the Europeans do it. No problem at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

xsiveone

NASCAR is more socialistic than F1 IMO.

I believe that Max Mosely said that the fine was so big because everything is big in F1. OTOH, I think that the paltry fines that NASCAR hands out are an embarrassment on the other end of the spectrum.

I'm glad to see that the team is still getting their bonuses. They deserve it for their hard work. It's a good move to keep up morale within McLaren because it was no fault of the other employees that the team got suspended and lost the money.

Alonso is a scumbag and I hope that his actions come back to bite him in the *** at some point. He's a snitch and F1 wants to make sure that the team doesn't try to underhandedly try and sabotage his chances of winning the championship as retribution for snitching out McLaren.

AU N EGL

DOH Oh Yah Jack I forgot.

joemoia

According to how the race goes, I can actually envision the McLaren team cheering on the Ferraris to pass Alonzo (not openly, of course) if it will help Hamilton win the championship

Slalom4me

I wonder whether the FIA action was prompted by FA over concerns for his own
well-being?

To state the obvious - how does FIA propose to 'monitor' a team that has the
means that McLaren apparently has? It is laughable to think that FIA
representatives could anticpate and oversee the myriad ways in which members
of the McLaren organization could undermine Alonso's prospects.

Anyone recall the case of Alexander Litvinenko in London in the spring of 2006.

If Mr Dennis was another sort of person, the situation for FA might be very
different.

My vote is that Mr Alonso's best hope is to rely on Mr Dennis' influence within
the organization. To the extent that what Ron Dennis says is considered gospel
and to the extent that there aren't any more rogue actors within the house, then
I feel FA has only his own shortcomings to contend with.

So much drama, so little time. Bernie Ecclestone's group certainly stands to do
well from all the controvery that has occured this year.

Perhaps rebranding is in order for the series - may I propose WWF1?

.

xsiveone

I hate to say it, but I'd like to see Massa win the race and have Kimi come in second. That way, it would be tough for Alonso to take the Championship over Hamilton if he still finishes anywhere in the points.

I wonder how a tie breaker would work? Let's say if Alonso finishes third and Hamilton finishes seventh. They'd be tied in points, so then they'd have to look at race wins. They would both have four race wins on the season. What would they go to at that point to figure out who is the champion?

joemoia

I have the same question, I don't know if there is another tie breaker or if they would both be declared co-champions.

Nightmare scenario, if you are a McLaren/Hamilton fan; Alonzo is behind Hamilton early in the race and desperately tries an ill-advised pass, taking them both out of the race. Kimi goes on to win the race and the championship by 1 point over Hamilton

xsiveone

I really think that McLaren might be worried about this scenario. You could tell that Hamilton breathed a sigh of relief when he outqualified Alonso at the race after the announcement in Belgium.

BTW.. If Hamilton finished out of the points, Kimi would win the championship by 3 points, not 1. 10 points for first and Hamilton is 7 ahead at the moment.

If Kimi wins, he would win the tie break with the most wins on the season with 6 (Lewis and Fred both have 4 wins right now). If Lewis wins, he doesn't have to worry about tie breaks. If Alonso wins and Lewis finishes third, Alonso would win the championship with the same points, but he would win the tie break because he would have 5 wins to Lewis' 4. This is why I want for a Ferrari to win. Unless Lewis wins the race, having the Ferrari's finish on top (Kimi second hopefully) would be Lewis' best chance for taking the championship.

What I would do is offer Massa a finskie under the table to wreck Alonso at the start. I don't think it would work though because Massa wants to win his home GP.

xsiveone

I just did a google search. Apparently, the second tie-breaker would be how many second place finishes the driver has on the season. Lewis would win this tie-break because he has 5 second place finishes to Alonso's 3.

What Lewis basically needs to do is play follow the leader with Alonso. All he has to do is finish directly behind him (if they are both in the points) and Lewis will win the championship. Lewis doesn't have to battle Alonso for position, which is good. If Alonso qualifies behind Lewis and tries to pass him at the start, I'd just let him go.

xsiveone

Here's a very interesting interview with JPM about the McLaren scandal.

http://canadianpress.google.com/arti...wgWcsGgn2yyIHQ