FIA to determine outcome today of Brazilian GP - and possibly Kimi Räikkönen's drivers' championship

McLaren team accused of "naked opportunism" in retroactive appeal on behalf of Lewis Hamilton

Kimi Räikkönen

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The final decision on whether Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen will get to keep the Formula One Drivers’ Championship title that he won in dramatic fashion in Brazil last month will be made this afternoon.
      The appeal hearing by the sport’s governing body the FIA, called by Ferrari rivals McLaren-Mercedes, will rule today on whether three drivers (from the Williams and BMW Sauber stables) should be disqualified after technical irregularities in Brazil, possibly lifting the McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton above Räikkönen in the final points standings.
     
Thursday’s hearing in London featured only the defence counsel speeches of the various teams and the FIA itself. The four FIA tribunal judges, from the United States, Greece, Portugal, and the Czech Republic, will announce their ruling later today, Friday.
      Before Thursday’s session, McLaren had repeatedly stated that the team merely wanted clarification of the fuel temperature irregularities that had emerged in relation to the BMW and Williams cars after the Brazilian GP.
      Race stewards at the time investigated the matter but saw no reason to alter the placings in the race or to disqualify any or all of the three drivers concerned - Nico Rosberg (Williams) and Robert Kubica & Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber).
     
However, on Thursday there was a distinct change in the tenor of the McLaren-Mercedes line, as the team’s barrister Ian Mill delivered a lengthy address demanding that Hamilton be given the championship title retroactively.
      “The principle is clear: if there was a performance enhancement, there was a breach and there has to be a disqualification. I ask you to address this as though it was any team at any stage of the season. It cannot make a difference it was the last race of the season, and that it will decide the championship. Invariably, whenever there has been a disqualification, there has been a reclassification", Mill argued.
      The McLaren bid on behalf of their driver is based on the reallocation of the championship points were the three drivers - who finished 4th, 5th, and 6th ahead of Hamilton in Brazil - to be disqualified and were the race points to be redistributed accordingly.
      Under those circumstances, Hamilton would move up to fourth place and would snatch the title by two points. As matters stood after the race, Räikkönen came from behind to win the title by a single point.
     
The Ferrari lawyer Nigel Tozzi not unnaturally disagreed with the McLaren claims, charging that: “This is not the way a Formula One World Championship should be won. It would be highly damaging for the sport if the title were to be won this way, with the fans probably feeling it was more about grubby manoeuvring by the lawyers than by skill behind the wheel", railed Tozzi.
      Tozzi also referred to Hamilton’s own earlier statements to the effect that he had no wish to win the F1 crown in the courtroom, and the team management’s protestations - made as recently as Wednesday of this week - that they were just seeking a legal clarification of the original Brazil judgement.
     
As matters heated up appreciably, Tozzi went on: “It could be said McLaren are shameless hypocrites devoid of any integrity, or maybe what their representatives have said earlier should be taken at face value. If what they want is clarity, then by all means let them have that, but do not allow them to have the world championship this way.”
      The BMW Sauber legal counsel went still further and lambasted the “naked opportunism” of the McLaren case. The FIA’s own lawyer demanded at Thursday’s hearing that the confirmed race results from Brazil should be upheld.
      The result of the appeal is expected this afternoon, and insiders believe it will be a major shock if the McLaren appeal is upheld.
     
The Formula One season had a dream climax with three drivers - Räikkönen, British rookie sensation Hamilton, and the 2005 and 2006 World Champion Fernando Alonso (McLaren) - all being in with a chance of victory at the final Grand Prix on the Interlagos circuit.
      In other respects, however, the sport was under a dark cloud this year after a number of acrimonious disputes between teams and even inside the McLaren team itself.
      McLaren-Mercedes were slapped with a £50 million fine and had all their Constructors’ Championship points removed in the wake of a spying scandal, when it was revealed that one of their designers had over 700 pages of sensitive Ferrari documents in his possession.
      More recently, the Renault Formula One team have become embroiled in yet another spying scandal - one that this time casts McLaren as the victims.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Kimi Räikkönen is the 2007 Formula One World Champion - for now (22.10.2007)

Links:
  Formula One
  FIA

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