Now Damon Hill and the FIA are in a war of words

[<_Spike_>]

Christ it's all going down now ain't it?

First...

Damon Hill has hit out at the FIA, with the 1996 world champion accusing Formula One's governing body of a lack of consistency in the wake of the latest spy scandal to rock the sport.

On Thursday the FIA charged Renault with "unauthorised possession" of McLaren-Mercedes secrets in the second spy scandal to hit F1 this year.

The Anglo-French squad will face the FIA's World Motor Sport Council on 6 December to answer the allegations - a scenario similar to what McLaren went through earlier this year when they were accused of cheating.

However, the cases are not the only instances of spying to hit F1 in recent times.

Earlier this year, former Ferrari engineers were found guilty of industrial espionage after leaking private information to Toyota.

But unlike the McLaren spying case, and now the Renault one, the charges were filed in court and had nothing to do with the FIA.

Thus, while the FIA fined McLaren $100 million and stripped them of their constructors' championship points, Toyota escaped punishment.

Uncomfortable

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Hill expressed his discomfort with the respective outcomes, saying: "I would like to understand how the Ferrari-Toyota case, which ended in court, did not lead to the same outcome as the Ferrari-McLaren case? Why was there no punishment of the team (Toyota)?

"There was an uncomfortable feeling that there was something more to the McLaren outcome than the issue being investigated. The way that justice was meted out raised some questions about the way the FIA handle these breaches.

"If breaches occur then those things should be investigated and dealt with sensibly and appropriately. But in that case there were lots of questions about what really happened that went unanswered."

Favouritism

Hill, now president of the British Racing Drivers' Club, also questioned the FIA's alleged favouritism towards Ferrari, citing the illegal floor device that the Scuderia used with great success at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix as proof that the Italian stable is given preferential treatment.

He also expressed the opinion that, in spite of the emergence of Lewis Hamilton this season, such controversies might actually be detrimental to F1's popularity in Britain.

"Why were Ferrari just given a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again after winning the first race with a device that was illegal? This brings about a lot of the problems relating to justice and consistency," he continued.

"In this country we are quite sophisticated sport and political spectators. If things don't stack up, and continue to fly in the face of what we regard as being just and fair, then the danger is people will just walk away.

"It's a problem that has existed for a long time in this sport, not knowing whether to believe things or not.

"I'm not a lone voice here. There are a lot of people who love this sport and have got a lot out of it, who want it to be a healthy sport and to attract people to it. When there are episodes like we had in the last season our hearts sink because we think that they're not doing it any good.

"Last season was the best in F1 for a long time, most notably because there were four drivers who could have been world champion.

"That brought about a massive amount of interest in the sport for the right reasons. It did not need any more controversy or sideshows."

But the FIA hits back with...

The FIA has responded to Damon Hill's latest attack on Formula One's governing body by saying his comments are based on "misunderstandings" of the facts and the sport's rules.

Earlier this week, Hill slammed the FIA for their lack of consistency in handing out punishments to F1 teams. The 1996 world champion questioned why an earlier spy scandal involving Toyota did not result in the same punishment as that handed out to McLaren-Mercedes when they were found guilty of possessing secret Ferrari data.

The FIA, though, has hit back, accusing Hill of not grasping the facts nor understanding Formula One's rules.

"The FIA would not normally respond to the comments attributed to Damon Hill but unfortunately they have appeared in various news reports as statements of fact," an FIA spokesman told Autosport.

"The FIA would not take issue with the expression of informed opinion but regrettably these latest comments are based on a fundamental misunderstanding not only of the facts but also the rules of F1.

"Only if a dispute between teams involves something which affects a motor sport competition can, or should, the FIA become involved.

"It cannot and will not attempt to substitute itself for the ordinary courts or seek to supervise all aspects of teams' conduct. A moment's reflection will show why this has to be the case.

"The FIA has received no complaint and has no reason to believe that anything which took place between Ferrari and Toyota falls within its competence."

Device

As for Hill's comments that Ferrari were just given "a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again after winning the first race (the season-opening Australian Grand Prix) with a device that was illegal", the spokesman explained that at the time Ferrari's floor device passed the required FIA tests and therefore was legal.

"This device fully satisfied the tests which were in place up to and including the Australian Grand Prix. It was therefore completely legal at that event," he said.

"On learning how the device functioned, the FIA concluded that although it complied with the letter of the rules, it was outside the spirit. Ferrari were therefore asked to modify it as were McLaren and Red Bull who were running similar devices.

"The Renault mass damper in 2006 was eliminated in the same way as were the 'wide' Michelin tyres in 2005. In the latter cases, the FIA was criticised for insisting on change rather than for failure to exclude cars."

 

[Eagle]

Congratulations to the FIA for actually citing history instead of just ranting like so many former World Champions seem prone to do these days. Every device that has wound up being deemed illegal, from the days of skirts to moving floors, has initially complied with the regulations, and those regulations have subsequently been revised to outlaw the offending device. Revised regulations cannot and should not be applied retroactively. Actual cheating however, such as Honda was convicted of in 2005, merits direct and immediate penalty (and I'm not saying whether or not Honda deserved it for the fuel-tank debacle, but they got convicted and they got punished and that was it).

If Ferrari felt that Toyota was actually a threat in the championship then maybe they would have taken the matter up with the FIA, but the left it to the regular judicial system instead. So in effect the reason the situations were handled differently had more to do with Ferrari than FIA preference. Now we can all start attacking Ferrari for setting bad precedents rather than being favoured by the FIA. Hooray.

 

[superberkut]

How and where did Damon Hill come from?

Anyways, I agree with Eagle, in that history was incited by the FIA rather than just a petty rant. But, Damon Hill's connection with these scandals is a bit unclear, that's all.

 

[SauberBMW]

the FIA doesn't favour Ferrari, there board is only made up of 40% of the representativs coming from Ferrari
(sarcasm)