Just when you thought it was over, it looks like there’s another twist in the 2007 season.
It may come to nothing, it may change the title holder – but it certainly is confusing to the casual viewer who doesn’t follow the sport all the time and may have just watched one race this year, yesterday’s Brazilian Grand Prix, conveniently shown at prime time in Europe (for many years Japan, and before that Australia, hosted the final race of the year so that any titles to be decided were shown at daft o’clock in the morning and only people like me watched them live)
Anyway, just when you thought Kimi Raikkonen had definitely won the title because Lewis Hamilton had finished 7th and therefore had one point less, there came the news that the fuel in the cars of Williams’s Nico Rosberg and BMW Sauber‘s Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld were below the temperature they should have been.
The regulations state that, “No fuel on board the car may be more than ten degrees centigrade below ambient temperature.” (Article 6.5.4 of the Formula One technical regulations – source: Formula1.com)
FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer said all fuel samples from the four cars showed temperature of 12 to 14 degrees centigrade lower than the ambient temperature at the time. The race stewards have apparently decided not to impose a punishment for the discrepancy because they could not say for certain that the fuel in the cars was below the maximum limit.
The issue is that Formula One Management (FOM) stated the temperature being 37 degrees but FIA and team-contracted meteorologists Meteo France’s temperature was a few degrees cooler.
Now, nowhere in the regulations – at least in the versions published on the link above – does it state the next part of the steward’s argument: “a regulation stating in clear terms that for the purposes of Article [6.5.5] the definitive ambient temperature shall be indicated on the FOM timing monitors alone.”
Two things here, Article 6.5.5 is about using devices to cool fuel, and if the accepted temperature is the one on FOMs monitor (37 degrees) then where’s the issue? The fuel is illegal, the teams should be punished.
To me, not punishing them sets a dangerous precedent – one in which it is acceptable to do whatever you like in the final race of the season because changing the result would affect the winner of the championship.
But… McLaren are kicking up a fuss about this. And rightly so, for they were beaten in the race by seemingly illegal cars.
McLaren, not without controversy themselves after being kicked out of the Constructor’s Championship for spying on Ferrari (something I haven’t written about, but didn’t feel the need. See here for details.) and causing the sport to be in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, are considering appealing the steward’s decision to leave BMW Sauber and Williams unpunished.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I do believe that if you do something wrong you should pay a penalty. But if these drivers are disqualified and removed from the results, the title will be Hamilton’s by default. After a season mired by controversy and legal wranglings creating titles that are fairly tainted anyway, this is the last thing the sport needs.
The best thing would be to put the lid on 2007 and concentrate on making 2008 the best it can be.
