Did McLaren throw the drivers title last season??

__plec__

I know it may be a bit late to be posting this, meant to post it ages ago,just want to know if anyone else thought it was a little strange how the season ended last season??

For me i think Mclaren used alonso as a scape goat in the whole 'spying scandel',while i think it actually went alot deeper and involved the full team.

I also think Ferrari may have found out alot more about this, and McLaren knew if they won the drivers championship then it may be revealed and could destroy them, so to stay in formula 1 they had to throw the championship.

I think both ferrari and mclaren had to agree to allow alonso and hamilton still compete as it was needed for the sport, but that a ferrari driver had to end up as championship

I just find it hard to believe a team with such experience would leave Hamilton out for too many laps as they did in china, when it was just a case of getting some points rather than winning it (as it turned out in the end)

Also,in the last race in brazil i just found it funny that hamiltons' car just stopped working for half a lap,only to 'fix itself' and drive at full pace for the remainder of the race.

il admit im not a massive formula one fan, so maybe the above has already been explained, just found the whole end of the season a little curious to say the least.

look forward to other peoples view on what ive written

thanks

Catcher86

I am not sure if there was a thread on this, but it did come up in some thread.

I would agree with you, I think McClaren had no other choice. They would have been thrown out of this year as well as the 2008 car was designed with Ferrari technology, but they have agreed with the FIA not to use or develope this technology.

There is a longer video that shows him hitting every button other than the pit limiter button. Then when he hits the limiter again, he starts going again.

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afatbollix

very interesting.... but would hamilton go with it??

__plec__

well,he cant pit unless the pit crew are ready for him and with the brazil incident im sure with all the technology they have in the pits these days someone could have shut something down for the half lap,hamilton may not have known.

plus there may have been the risk of himself and mclaren been thrown out of the championship if more evidence came to light,so maybe he knew it was in his best interest not to win,as we all know he will win it someday.

obviously im not saying this happened,it may be just pure coincidence,but i just wonder

cashmni1

Agreed that there is more to the McLaren - Ferrari saga than meets the eye. However, to think that they threw the championship is utterly silly inmho.
Why would Ferrari not destroy McLaren if they could. Remember there is no love lost between these two. Also, McLaren were judged by the FIA (i think) so the £50 million fine was the decision of the FIA, not McLaren or Ferrari.
All sorts of conspiracy theories can be added but Alonso's head is just too big to take orders to the tune of "stay behind".
Hamiltons car "stopped" for a half a lap due to driver error, (pit lane limiter button, I think).
The whole team could not be involved. If they were it would be the best kept secret since landing a man on the moon back in the sixties. (oh yeah, and getting him back again in one piece, all with live radio coverage).
Seriously though, Any team that competitive would not just "throw" the c-ship.

Robbo

Jim Corr was right!

__plec__

the thing is that F1 was being seen as a boring sport,then hamilton comes along,and his battle with alonso got the public interested again.So the whole f1 world had something to gain from mclaren,and that includes ferrari.if mclaren had been banned and both drivers thrown out of the championship then the audience would have gone with them.

RayM

In a year when McLaren were under that much scrutiny, 'throwing the championship' would have been an incredible risk to take. There's no way that it would have happened.

Oblomov

First, control of the car or any part, engine , gearbox, etc by the team are expressly forbidden and carefully monitored. All information can be read but it is a read only situation.

The McLaren spygate situation, one ex-engineer details work to an old friend who in turn applies it to the car. The engineer and the test driver are in collusion and are freely exchanging info. newly arrived driver seeks to have his the faster of the two cars. Alonso also wants number one status and is willing to do almost anything. Alonso reputation precedes him, temper tantrums, excessive mood swings, all known to the Renault team members and to others in the Pit Lane.

Ron Dennis does the right thing, unaware of the extent of the information and its exact proliferation within the McLaren empire.

The transcript of the two trials, the leaked e-mails etc all contribute to the sentence and the much used "bringing the sport into disrepute"... yer right, from Spanky Mosley.

The animosity between Dennis and Mosley goes back years and the tone of the statements within the hearings and the comments from the panel would have resulted in a successful appeal in a civil court but...

Nuff said.

RayM

Oblomov wrote: »

The animosity between Dennis and Mosley goes back years and the tone of the statements within the hearings and the comments from the panel would have resulted in a successful appeal in a civil court but...

Nuff said.

A cynic might suggest that there is something extremely dodgy about McLaren's recent string of incredibly harsh penalties.

Oblomov

Cynical, heaven forbid,

Fact, an ex-director of Ferrari was sitting on the panel and his presence was questioned by McLaren's counsel. How naive to think he might, possibly, by some extreme and remote idea that he could have an effect on the decision, oh TUT. Also, he is seriously considered as successor to Spanky.

The much repeated code of conduct got a hammering and the next thing you know is cast aside like a tissue hankie in a high wind.

What did the great Bard say, Oh, what web we weave when first we practice to deceive.

It was get even time, purely and simply. When McLaren details are found on the Renault computer, sorry computers, main frame, lap tops and sundry other means of data storage, slapped wrist and told not to do it again. With the admonishment, Well, at least they didn't use the information.

ROFLMAO

Oblomov

McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh has played down speculation the British team believes it is being targeted for unfair treatment by F1's governing body.

The Mercedes-powered outfit, handed a record $100m penalty by the FIA and kicked out of the constructors' standings last year for spying, has also been on the receiving end of a bevy of recent penalties.

Most recently, Lewis Hamilton was penalised for incidents during the Canadian and French grands prix, and Heikki Kovalainen moved back five places on the Magny-Cours grid for blocking in qualifying.

The Daily Express newspaper points out that while stewards were quick to penalise Hamilton for cutting a chicane, "they did look leniently on Raikkonen's Ferrari as it sped round Magny-Cours with a piece of exhaust trailing which could have been deemed dangerous".

Staunch Max Mosley opponent Sir Jackie Stewart added on Monday: "You can ask questions about the consistency with which penalties are applied. A lot of people - and not McLaren personnel - are saying that the FIA are more interested in finding faults at McLaren than at other teams."

When asked if he thought McLaren is being singled out due to its difficult relationship with Mosley, Hamilton said on Sunday: "I'm not going to answer that."

Team boss Ron Dennis, meanwhile, invited reporters to "draw your own conclusions" about anti-McLaren conspiracy theories.

Oblomov

And just to clear things up:

The highest ranking motor racing official in the United Arab Emirates has admitted that his influence got embattled FIA president Max Mosley over the line in the recent confidence vote.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone recently poured scorn on Mosley's Paris victory by suggesting that a plethora of the votes in his favour came from the various influences in Africa.

But it now emerges that Mohammad Bin Sulayem, chief of motor sports in the UAE, controlled no less than 41 of the 169 total votes cast.

"Yes, you are right. I had got him so many votes," Sulayem, also a successful rally driver, said in an interview with Gulf News.

"Yes, I made the difference. I don't deny it," he added.

Sulayem is unashamedly a staunch Mosley supporter, and has referred to the sex scandal as a "terrorist attack on his personal life".

Lovely choice of words

"If anyone can convince me that he has done wrong to motor sport or during his tenure his decisions have hurt formula one or rallying then we have a case. But not over his personal and private affairs," he said.