Ferrarigate: I Name The Guilty Man

In most sports, it is accepted that influencing the outcome of an event by means other than fair competition is cheating. Even in F1, where sportsmanship is a puny weakling being menaced by muscular thugs, it is illegal for a team to fix the result of a race by ordering a driver to concede a place.

Yet at Hockenheim 2010 we saw Ferrari arrange for Felipe Massa to throw away a race win in favour of Fernando Alonso.

Undoubtedly then, a blatant sporting crime was committed in front of our very eyes. But who is the guilty man, the fellow who should bear our outrage as a stain on his record?

Let us consider the suspects, and examine the case against each of them.

Fernando Alonso

The volatile Spanish driver was certainly the beneficiary of the crime, and that is often a whodunit clue.

Indisputably a driver of the first rank, he is building a reputation as an arrogant and tantrum-prone brat. But I have to suggest that being a prima donna is built into the personality of an F1 driver, and in the case in question Alonso did what any of his peers would have done.

Massa pulled over, and Alonso zipped past, it would be foolish to fault him for that.

Verdict: Not guilty.

Rob Smedley

Smedley was the public voice of the crime. He was ordered to communicate the team order that was the specific offence, and he did so.

But at the end of the day, Smedley is just a spanner-monkey, not a key decision maker, so he cannot be made responsible.

Not Guilty

Stefano Domenicali

As Ferrari team principal, Domenicali is very much the team's public face. It was him who gave Smedley the team order to pass along, and who made duplicitous statements to the media after the race.

Yet, Domenicali is only one cog in the Ferrari machine. A very important cog, true, but he does not act alone or without clearance from the top of the food chain.

Verdict: Not guilty

Luca Cordero di Montezemolo

The suave Ferrari president is Domenicali's boss. It is hard to believe that Domenicali would pull such a serious stunt as violating F1's rule against team orders, and doing so in the most blatant manner, if he did not know he had support from above.

Montezemolo very much has his finger on the pulse of Ferrari's business interests, which are inextricably linked with the interests of their major sponsors, such as Spanish bank Santander.

His job does not require him to be a champion of sporting conduct in F1, only to achieve the best business results for Scuderia Ferrari and its partners.

I submit that Montezemolo may have approved of the crime, but that he could not have caused it to occur.

Verdict: Not guilty

Felipe Massa

There is only one man who can be held directly responsible, the man who accepted an illegal instruction, and allowed Alonso to pass him. It was in his hands to carve a reputation for proud and honourable independence by the ignoring the team order relayed to him by Smedley, but he made the wrong choice, the weak choice.

In doing so, he engulfed F1 in a storm of controversy, besmirched his own reputation, and totally eliminated himself as a championship contender for now and forever.

He has become a thing to creep about in Alonso's shadow with an invisible #2 branded on his forehead.

Felipe baby, what's the matter with you? Have you considered growing a pair?

Verdict: Guilty as charged.