The ICA's (International Court of Appeal) decision to call the appeal against Lewis Hamilton's 25-second penalty at this years Belgium Grand-Prix 'inadmissable' has sparked many reactions, most of them being disgust.
The decision, made yesterday, says that McLaren had "no right" to appeal the penalty under, "Article 152 of the International Sporting Code states that drive-through penalties are 'not susceptible to appeal."
Now correct me if I am wrong, but even if the penalty was to reflect a drive-through penalty, it wasn't an actual drive-through. Therefore, the ICA aren't actually playing by the rules to the letter, which shows yet more favor to Ferrari.
British newspaper columnist's have their own views on the court's ruling.
"Falling back on an appeal simply being inadmissible is just too convenient. It is fundamentally damaging to a sport when spectators leave the event believing they have seen one thing, only to discover that their eyes deceived them."
"And when senior figures tell you that it is better that the fans are arguing over 'controversial rulings by the referees' rather than the majesty of the on-track action, you know that the sport is in dire danger not just of losing its soul, but its very raison d'etre.' David Tremayne—The Independent
"The five judges decided that the stewards in Belgium had imposed a 'drive-through' penalty on Hamilton for gaining an advantage by cutting a chicane."
"This type of penalty, even applied retrospectively, cannot be appealed against, so the court threw out McLaren's case without passing judgment on the detail of whether Hamilton had driven fairly." Edward Gorman—The Times
"Lewis Hamilton said he was 'disappointed but not depressed' after a court rejected McLaren's appeal to have the Formula One leader reinstated as the Belgian Grand Prix winner."
"The decision left the 23-year-old Briton just one point clear of Ferrari's Brazilian Felipe Massa with four races remaining."
"Motor sport's governing body, the International Automobile Federation (FIA), said in a statement that the court of five judges had 'concluded that the appeal is inadmissible' after Hamilton gave his version of events at the hearing in Paris on Monday." Andrew Baker—The Telegraph
Lewis Hamilton, himself, said that he was 'disappointed, but not depressed' at the ruling.
"All I want to do now is put this matter behind me and get on with what we drivers do best: racing each other."
"We're racers, we're naturally competitive, and we love to overtake. Overtaking is difficult, and it feels great when you manage to pull off a great passing manoeuvre. If it pleases the spectators and TV viewers, it's better still. So I'm disappointed, yes, but not depressed," said Hamilton in a statement from him and McLaren.
Although the appeal was judged as 'inadmissable' by the court, McLaren CEO, Martin Whitmarsh, thought otherwise.
"No-one wants to win Grands Prix in court; but we felt that Lewis had won the Belgian Grand Prix on track, in an exciting and impressive manner. Our legal team and witnesses calmly explained this, as well as our belief that the appeal should be admissible, to the FIA International Court of Appeal."
Have your say in comments.
7 comments Last one added 9 months ago — Leave a Comment
Nick Taylor 9 months ago
It's not the case of the FiA having favour for Ferrari, it's a case of the FiA having cases against McLaren, as I have stated in one of my articles it's not favouratism it is however the fact that again the FiA in a lot of cases believe that McLaren shouldn't be in this years championship so they are being more stringent on them.
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Samantha 9 months ago
Its rather convieniant that Farrari benefit out of all of this as they did last year, when the BMW team failed to get penalised for cooling their fuel down thus improving their performance, i am disgusted that the appeal court wasted all the time and money to hear the arguements for one the appeal bieng heard and then the appeal bieng upheld when all the time they had no intention of overturning it anyway. My question is can a penalty be imposed if it is not announced during the race that the car is under investigation???? As my point is no warning sign came up during the race to say car 22 under investigation, was it only post Hamilton winning the race did they decide to investigate him, if this is so thats why Charlie Whitting oked the menouver as at that point there was no investigation, so who moaned about the overtaking, how about we look to the red team???? Farrari always seem to benefit from the stewards, FIA decisions can anyone explain why that is???
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mark andrew 9 months ago
Samantha you are feisty .......... I like it , Grrrrrrr lol and I agree with you , but I warn you not to get into an argument with the Tifosi on here , they wont hear any of it , that they are favoured over Mclaren .
We all know the reason Lewis ended up being punished was because Massa was less than half a minute behind him on track , plenty of time in the penalty to move Lewis to 3rd and a Ferrari to 1st .
I guarantee you tho that if both Ferrari's had crashed out in the final 2 laps the penalty wouldnt of happened at all , the FIA and Ferrari saw an opportunity to get one of there drivers to win the race , it makes me sick but no one can stop it .
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Anthony 9 months ago
Ferrari ! And I think Mark is rather keen on you ! ?????????
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Rick Nichols 9 months ago
The FIA'S manipulation of the results of one of the greatest F1 races I've ever seen(Ive been watching religiously since '83) disenfranchised all of us who actually thought we were watching a sporting event wherein the result was dictated by the competing entities performance.It makes NASCAR'S "debris cautions" look positively inspired in their brilliant subtlety.It also unfortunately validates the commonly held American perspective that F1 is not real racing, but rather a manipulated technical exercise for elitist Anglophilic snobs. Way to go Bernie, Max et al! You all win the gold medal for stepping on your collective male protuberances, and making NASCAR look legit. As a lifelong F1, and now dedicated McLaren fan, I could not be conceivably more disgusted. Kick their asses Lewis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! rick240z
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Anthony 9 months ago
Dedicated to Mclaren tsk tsk..............another soul wasted. I do agree with the Bernie and Max observation though.
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Paul 9 months ago
You guys are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo funny.
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