Should Ferrari and Alonso backtrack on cheating claim?

[timbo]

So the safety car rule is not a good rule, we agree on that. But does it give Ferrari the right to bring F1 into disrepute? I think not! Ferrari to a certain degree are responsible for the decisions of the SWG and the F1 commission and have brought the rule upon themselves by their voting. So when they end up with the bad luck IMO they have no right to cry "foul" and accuse the officials who have been given an impossible job to do. They should admit that the rule is wrong and get busy to change it.

Ummm
Wait a second.
What disrepute?
Are they issuing a protest? Take that to court?
Do we have a freedom of speech?

When Hamilton and Macca were complaining of the Belgian GP 2008, had they right to do that?

[WhiteBlue]

So the safety car rule is not a good rule, we agree on that. But does it give Ferrari the right to bring F1 into disrepute? I think not! Ferrari to a certain degree are responsible for the decisions of the SWG and the F1 commission and have brought the rule upon themselves by their voting. So when they end up with the bad luck IMO they have no right to cry "foul" and accuse the officials who have been given an impossible job to do. They should admit that the rule is wrong and get busy to change it.

What disrepute?
Are they issuing a protest? Take that to court?
Do we have a freedom of speech?

Ferrari have made public accusations of a "false race", "manipulated race" and "scandal". At the same time they have not specified what manipulations they think have been made. There is no official protest by Ferrari that would allow the FiA to address the issue. I believe that no team has the right to kick up a stink and give F1 a bad name if they haven't even lodged an official protest. Slander is not the proper way to deal with such a problem. The freedom of speech is not unlimited. Before you alarm the press you have a duty to sort out your grievances by the proper legal actions.

[bean]

Really, this thread is about Valencia 2010. Singapore has absolutely nothing to do with this. As such, any further insinuations towards that race will be removed, no matter in which Valencian GP related thread.

Of course discussion of Singapore is relevant to this and associated threads. The discussion is about accusations of race manipulation by a driver who has been involved in the most blatant case of race manipulation in the history of F1

[WhiteBlue]

"We have already taken up this matter with the FIA," said Domenicali. "The result is closed and it is finished, for the future we have to make sure that the things we have been discussing will not happen again."

Domenicali said that comments from Alonso that the FIA had ‘manipulated' the result of the race were made in the heat of the moment.

"Well, I think we have to consider [him being] in a hot moment," he explained. "For sure Fernando was the man that was ruined by the situation. Our race was hurt by a situation that was not under our control. That is what I can say."

This is the back tracking I have expected from Ferrari. I hope they will continue on a rational way and work with the other teams and the FiA to solve the issue.

As far as I'm concerned the issue is closed. We should discuss what is wrong with the safety car rule and rest the cheating issue.

[bean]

As far as I'm concerned the issue is closed.

not quite closed according to Autosport

"Ferrari boss hits out at Valencia events"

"Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo says the European Grand Prix set a dangerous precedent that could damage the credibility of Formula 1."

"Di Montezemolo said on Monday that the situation was unacceptable and that it cast a shadow over the credibility of the sport.

"The result of yesterday's race was misrepresentative," di Montezemolo said on Ferrari's website. "Ferrari, which showed itself to be competitive in the European Grand Prix, paid a price that was too high for respecting the rules.

"Meanwhile those who didn't follow the rules were penalised by the race officials in a way that was less severe than the damage suffered by those who did respect them.

"That is a very serious and unacceptable event that creates dangerous precedents, throwing a shadow over the credibility of Formula 1."

[WhiteBlue]

Montezemolo should know better than calling the credibility of F1 in doubt. One can still see this as criticism of the rules and not of the stewards. I think the Alonso accusation of manipulations are off the table and Ferrari will work with the teams and the FiA. The focus should be on the rule discussion IMO.

[autogyro]

The FIA should take Montezemolo to court for bringing the sport into disrepute.
Max would not hesitate.

[WhiteBlue]

The FIA should take Montezemolo to court for bringing the sport into disrepute.
Max would not hesitate.

Fact of the matter is they can't. According to the sporting regs only the F1 commission can.

[bean]

The FIA should take Montezemolo to court for bringing the sport into disrepute.
Max would not hesitate.

I never thought the day would come when I'd agree with a bring back Max sentiment - but it would have been interesting if he was still there.

[alberto222mx]

I´m not a big fan of LH, but IMO if Kobayashy would not have been behind Hamilton allowing him to make a big gap before the drive through this controversy did not exist. He broke a rule and was punished, that's it. The rules were applied, and sometimes because of the race situation the punishment looks less efective, but it doesn´t change the fact the rule was applied. By example take a look of the penalty for MS in Monaco against the penalty for Alonso in China.
If Alonso didn´t broke the rule and because of that he finished far behind, well, maybe is unfair but that´s racing.
And not forget how Alonso always blame others when things go wrong for him, when he was in Renault the cheaters were Ferrari an MS, a year later McLaren, and now the FIA.

[andrew]

Another Ferrari bashing thread on t'internet? Oh well...

Of course they shold not backtrack. If they are 100% convinced of their opinion then they should stand by it.

[siskue2005]

Mr. Alonso talking about race manipulation...Hilarious and ironic...

[WhiteBlue]

At the time, I reacted emotionally and in that situation, it is all too easy to adopt a tone and say things that can be interpreted wrongly, giving rise to suspicions, something which I had no intention of doing. Sure, I understand that the stewards have a difficult job to do and they have to take decisions that are not easy.

The issue should be finally closed.

[ISLAMATRON]

..., he's not apologizing he is saying that everybody that heard exactly what he said interpretated it wrongly... he fully knows what he said and what tone he intended to put forward. He should make a proper apology for suggesting "manipulation" of the race... and at least cry a little like Lewis after austrailia

[l4mbch0ps]

1) Hamilton clearly broke a rule, and therefore deserved punishment.

2) Before breaking the rule, he was second.

3) After being punished, he was . . . second.

If you really see no cause for dispute, then you are truly hopelessly prejudiced.

Penalties are not designed to perfectly counter-balance the advantage gained by the infraction. That's a nearly impossible task to accomplish in F1. The stewards can only look to precedent, and to the rules. It can be suggested that a harsher penalty was appropriate, but hinging your argument on the fact that race position wasn't lost is fallacious.

Accusing the FIA of manipulating a race is not a small accusation, and I would want much stronger arguments than that if it was me doing the mud slinging.

As far as the "apology" goes, that's all you'll ever get out of Alonso, I suspect.

At the time, I reacted emotionally and in that situation, it is all too easy to adopt a tone and say things that can be interpreted wrongly, giving rise to suspicions, something which I had no intention of doing.

Put that side by side with:

It's a shame, not for us because this is racing, but for all the fans who came here to watch a manipulated race.

Obviously, these things get blown out of proportion, but you can't just talk. Things you say are real. Reminds me of the side-by-sides that Jon Stewart does of the Fox crew.