Formula 1 2007 Discussion Thread

Well now it's official at least, Alonso will not be driving with McLaren next season. Not that it came as any surprise.

 

Well the McLaren lawyer called for "disqualification" at the hearing today (no surprise there, really), but seems we're gonna have to wait until tomorrow for the verdict:

http://www.planetf1.com/story/0,18954,3213_2883245,00.html

'Ruling expected on Friday'
Thursday 15th November 2007

The FIA has revealed that the Court of Appeal's verdict will only be made known on Friday.

On Thursday representatives of McLaren and Ferrari, as well as BMW and Williams, arrived in London for the start of McLaren's appeal.

The Woking team is appealing the Brazilian GP race stewards decision not to penalise BMW and Williams for using fuel that was cooler than the F1 rules allow during the Interlagos race.

Should the team be successful it could hand Lewis Hamilton the 2007 Drivers' Championship as he would move from seventh to fourth in the race classification thereby earning enough points to take the title away from Kimi Raikkonen.

Although Ferrari are not actually part of the appeal they are determined to have their say to ensure Kimi Raikkonen keeps the title and had three lawyers representing the World Champion.

The Maranello marque were headed by Nigel Tozzi QC, dubbed the 100 million dollar lawyer after his victory in the 'spygate' saga. It was Tozzi who led Ferrari's legal team at the World Motor Sport Council hearing in Paris at the end of September.

The four judges presiding over the case are John Cassidy from the United States, Vassilis Koussis from Greece, Jose Nacedo E Cunha from Portugal and Jan Stovicek from the Czech Republic.

Ian Mill QC spearheaded McLaren's case, with CEO Martin Whitmarsh on hand and supported by team manager Dave Ryan and engineering director Paddy Lowe.

BMW and Williams had their technical directors in attendance in Willy Rampf and Sam Michael respectively.

However, all four teams may have to wait a day for the verdict as according to Reuters a FIA spokeswoman has revealed that a 'judgment was likely to come on Friday.'

 

McLaren appeal failed. I don't think anybody realistically expected it to go through.

 

Except McLaren

 

Curiously now Renault is in the middle of a spy scandal. How is it that in every scandal or rule infringement McLaren always seems to be somehow involved? At least as far as this year is concerned.

 

Alonso and Piquet Jr. are Renault's drivers next season. Now the only question remaining is where does Heikki Kovalainen go? McLaren is the best option as far as getting a good car is concerned. Although in Toyota he wouldn't have as much competition. It'd be better for the championship if he just went to McLaren, we'd then have at least 5 drivers capable of winning a race next season.

 

Well it's official: Heikki was just confirmed as signed by McLaren that should be a very interesting partnership, cant wait to see what they do.

In other shocking (at least for me ) news: http://www.planetf1.com/story/0,18954,3213_2972611,00.html

FIA report shows Ferrari data on McLaren's 08 car
Friday 14th December 2007

The FIA report into McLaren's 2008 car reveals why the team to chose to come clean over the spy scandal.

Although McLaren's apology is likely to see them granted entry into the 2008 season, the FIA report is damning.

The Report by the FIA Technical Department to the World Motor Sport Council claims negligence on the part of the British team. It reads "The prior investigations by McLarne into the use of the confidential Ferrari information do not appear to have been very thorough."

It was found that the team were not honest over Mike Coughlan's role within the team and also discovered that senior figures at Woking were willing to use Ferrari's technical information on their 2008 challenger.

"The [senior McLaren engineers] on the 2007 and 2008 McLaren cars appear to have known that confidential Ferrari information was available from a "mole" and had prepared to use it to McLaren's advantage in the development of the 2007 and 2008 cars," reads the report.

Furthermore, the report uncovered that contrary to McLaren's evidence at the WMSC hearings, Coughlan did play an active role in the design of spurious systems, especially the brake balance system.

"McLaren's insistence before the WMSC that Coughlan had only a functional design role at McLaren is not backed up by the documents and interviews. He played a leadership role in the development of brake strategy for McLaren on their 2007 and 2008 cars...McLaren were previously keen to downplay his contribution."

The governing body's investigation found that McLaren had intended to run certain Ferrari systems on their 2008 car. "McLaren's installation of a [confidential] in the braking system of its 2008 car had been influenced by the receipt of Ferrari information."

McLaren were also looking into the possibility of using CO2 gas to inflate their tyres - a concept that was passed from Nigel Stepney onto Coughlan.

No wonder McLaren came out with this apology statement earlier this week, i should have known something was coming

 

"McLaren were previously keen to downplay his contribution."

That being Denis, who claimed rather rigorously that Mike Coughlan was the only involved. Let's see if Denis survives this one as well.