Two days after the biggest racing hearing in recent memory, the details of the F1 spying row involving Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and Ferrari are still incredibly unclear.
McLaren boss Ron Dennis was hit with a two-year constructor ban Thursday afternoon, as well as a record $100 million fine for his team.
Just in case that didn't sink in, the FIA, F1's governing body, also confirmed that there would be rigorous checks on the 2008 Vodafone McLaren Mercedes car for any Ferrari influence.
The ruling was called harsh but unsurprising by observers—and did nothing to quell the intrigue surrounding the scandal.
The World Motor Sport council heard how McLaren chief designer Mike Coughland and former Ferrari performance director Nigel Stepney exchanged an 800-page dossier on some of the finer intricacies of the F2007 Ferrari F1 car. This charge was never denied by McLaren—nor was there ever a doubt that Coughland had a Ferrari-related dossier in his house.
Of course, this sort of "spying" happens all the time in F1, when engineers, mechanics, or designers switch different teams and bring their knowledge with them. What makes the case more interesting is the other evidence revealed by the FIA on Friday afternoon.
Particularly fascinating is the role of two of the "playing staff" at McLaren—test driver Pedro De La Rosa and current F1 world champion Fernando Alonso.
Both drivers, it appears, knew about the manual. The FIA accessed emails sent by De La Rosa to Alonso on the morning of the Hungarian Grand Prix which indicated that both drivers were privy to information contained in the Ferrari dossier.
Coincidentally, the email was sent the same weekend that Alonso and Dennis had a falling out over Alonso's supposed block of teammate and world championship leader Lewis Hamilton.
Alonso and Hamilton were both promised "immunity" with regard to point penalties in the championship standings—they're the two current leaders—if they presented evidence on Thursday. They both accepted, thus averting the spectacle of F1 having to interrupt a four-way championship battle that may be the best in years.
Alonso is perhaps lucky to get off so lightly, as he appears to have been at least partially complicit in the dissemination of information contained in the dossier.
Does this make him guilty? Possibly. Still, there would have been an uproar had the two drivers had points deducted—which likely influenced the decision of panel.
The fans and pundits come to see the drivers, and they want to see the best take on the best. The FIA have just about given everybody their wish.
As it stands, McLaren looks to lose out on many of the privileges associated with a first- or second-place finish in the F1 standings. If nothing else, the panel managed to hit the team where it really hurts—in their pockets.
In the long run it remains to be seen what impact the ruling will have on McLaren, its employees, and, perhaps most importantly, its drivers. It seems fair to say that the outcome could have certainly been worse for the team.
The panel could have banned McLaren from both this year's and next year's world championships. Thankfully, common sense seems to have prevailed within the World Motor Sport Council and, dare I say, even the FIA.
If there had to be a severe outcome in that Paris courtroom, for F1's sake at least, the right decision was made.
The right decision for the sport, that is. Was it actually THE right decision? More to come in Part 2.
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