Ferrari escape further punishment - WMSC decision

[saif]

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pr ... cision.pdf

Massa told the fia that he let alonso pass in interests of driver safety and it is revealed that alonso's engine was turned up and massa's engine turned down before the overtaking!

[Bobdredds]

Hi, I am new here but I used to contribute to a couple of other sites over the years. When the last one shut I had intended to stay away as it were but this issue with TO's is too much. To get things straight, I have been a fan since the 60's and I am a big Ferrari fan. This does not prevent me from enjoying other teams and drivers winning. I am a Schumi fan but I am also a Lewis fan amongst others. I really enjoy teams and drivers getting their first win, first WDC etc.
There are 2 approaches to racing at the top in F1 from what I have seen. One approach is to get the 2 best drivers, give them the best cars and lock out the grid from the first race. As long as one of them prevails, nobody cares.
The achilles heel for that system is when you get a brilliant driver in a slightly slower car and a less experienced driver or a situation where one of the drivers is struggling with the car while the other nails it. That is why you need TO's, to manage that. I wanted Felipe to win the WDC this season and I supported him from the start but it is clear that he hasn't got to grips with it this season. As much as I wanted to see him win in Germany, I have to agree with letting Alonso win. He is realistically the only chance for Ferrari this season. But Felipe is like a sponge and learns an incredible amount at an incredible rate and I expect him to be competitive next season. After all he raced and thrashed Kimi in equal machinery. Schumi is having a similar problem in the merc so it is clear to me that in those situations TO's are necessary to balance those issues.
However if you have two top drivers who are racing well and have tight contracts,
like I suspect Lewis and Jenson have, then you are restricted in your options if the drivers dont want to play. All you can do is mumble about fair play like Whitmarsh does, conveniently forgetting the times when McLaren used TO's. There are TO's in Red Bull or at least a strong favouritism towards Vettel but Mark still managed to circumvent them with talent so TO's are simply another challenge for a driver.
SEb is a great driver and I predicted his greatness well before his first win but he is inexperienced and hasn't earned his spurs yet. The teams handling of it's drivers fails to take that into account and that has created a false confidence in Vettel. TO's would have helped. All IMHO of course.

[Mitsuro Sano]

Ferrari said Smedley's message to Massa was to motivate him because he was slower than Fernando. Okay... Let's see how Fisichella's engineer motivated him when he was slower than Fernando Alonso:

Go to 4:27

Go to 4:27
video from suzukiF1

In the official German GP review made by F1.com, you can hear first Smedley really trying to push Massa because Fernando was indeed faster than him, then you hear him saying the now very famous message: "FERNANDO......IS......FASTER....THAN....YOU. Can you confirm you understood that message?" When Fisi's engineer said "COME ON!!!", Smedley said "Can you confirm you understood that message?".....

So Smedley's message wasn't team order

[Bobdredds]

The bottom line is that Felipe hasnt managed to get to grips with the car as well as Fernando this season and it was a sensible decision. If people really care about fair play to the extent they would have us believe, then petition to give Felipe the 2008 crown. The incident in Germany is exactly what TO's are about. One good race doesn't make a championship and TO's allow that situation to be rectified when it occurs. I am a fan of Felipe but this is not his season and Fernando is doing the better job. Red Bull are doing it the other way and it's a bit of a shambles if not worse because there is clearly favouritism for Vettel in the team but the pretense that they are equal is is far worse than Ferrari's "tactically coded requests".
Jenson and Lewis are evenly matched and are in the enviable position of being WDC's with individual clout. Lewis does have a slight edge but McLaren cant really ask last years WDC to play second fiddle that easily. I'm sure Jenson covered all that in his contract especially as he knew he was going into Lewisland.
So all MW can do is claim that the dont use TO's while evrybody knows that when taken in a historical context it is a lie.
McLaren fixed a race by doing a deal with Williams in the 90's and that was even illegal back then. McLaren won the 1990 WDC in Suzuka by Senna taking Prost's Ferrari out at the first corner, there were no cries of favouritism then.
I was however very impressed that Peter Sauber and Frank Williams sent a letter of support for Ferrari and it restored some of my faith in F1.