Sidepodcast

Days that Shook the F1 World - McLaren's $100 Million Fine

• Length: 3:37 
• Size: 3.3 MB 
• File: day8.mp3 
• Transcript: day8.pdf 
• Torrent: day8.torrent 

Hello, and welcome to a new mini series from Sidepodcast. This is, in fact, the second series of Days that Shook the F1 World. Here we’ll look at seven incidents from Formula 1’s vast history and examine them in closer detail. These shows will be broadcast on consecutive nights for seven days, with an omnibus to follow. So, without further ado, let’s get started. Our first important date is 13th September 2007.

The events leading up to McLaren’s $100 million fine can’t really be sandwiched under the heading of a single day that shook the F1 World. Stepney-gate, the spying affair, the espionage saga, whatever name it went under, it dragged on for months. Every day there was a new snippet of news, a quote from one side or the other, accusing, defending, generally making headlines.

The basic story comprises of two rogue employees, one of Ferrari and one of McLaren, who traded information from the Italian team that may or may not have made it onto the Mercedes powered car. Once discovered, McLaren were investigated and the World Motorsport Council held a hearing to decide their fate.

After all the evidence had been presented, and the Motorsport Council had time to ponder their conclusions, they decided to take away all of McLaren’s constructor points for that year, meaning they would effectively be last in the championship. The drivers were allowed to keep their points, but the team also had to fork out $100 million. Technically, it was 100 million less the revenue lost from not being near the top of the constructors table, but the nice round figure made for better headlines.

The punishment is both harsh and perhaps a little too lenient. If you are going to take away championship points, then the full effects of that should be known. Losing revenue is part of the punishment, is it not? At the time, Ron Dennis estimated the actual cheque they would be writing would amount to about half the announced amount. But either way, $100 or $50 million is the biggest fine the sport has ever seen, and although not crippling for a team like McLaren, it would have made at least a dent in the budget. The previous largest fine was only $4 million, given to organisers of the Turkish Grand Prix for botching podium ceremony etiquette.

For the drivers, it had very little effect. The World Motorsport Council knew they were robbing fans of a constructors battle, and essentially handing Ferrari the title, so it wouldn’t be in anyone’s interest to do the same with the driver’s championship as well. Hamilton and Alonso were busy battling each other, and trying to keep the Ferrari duo at bay, and to have wiped the slate clean at that point of the season would have ruined the entire year.

Another element to the penalty McLaren received was the evaluation of the 2008 car, and the ongoing effect of being last in the championship. Each driver received a low number, the team started at the wrong end of the pitlane (aside from those races in which Bernie intervened), and the team had to wait until December of ’07 to find out whether the new car would be allowed to race.

In the end, the event didn’t do that much damage to the team as a whole. They won the championship in 2008, meaning Ron Dennis proved his point. The sum of money wasn’t buckling for the company, and both drivers continued about their business as if nothing had happened. However, it could be that with cost cutting measures the name of the game in Formula 1 at the moment, that will stand as the highest fine handed out for a long time to come.

That’s it for this first episode of the new miniseries. I’d love to hear your feedback on this subject or any suggestions for future episodes. You can comment on the site, or email me christine @ sidepodcast.com. Join me tomorrow for the next Day that Shook the F1 World.

Theme music: Causeway, Change in My Lifetime.

Days that Shook the F1 World - Team Orders in Austria, 2002

• Length: 4:31 
• Size: 4.2 MB 
• File: day3.mp3 
• Transcript: day3.pdf 
• Torrent: day3.torrent 

Welcome to the Sidepodcast series: Days that Shook the F1 World. So far we have covered the US Grand Prix in 2005 and the death of Ayrton Senna in 1994, now it’s time to look at another relatively recent date: May 12th 2002.

Team orders have always been a controversial subject. The argument is debated extensively these days, and mostly focuses on where to draw the line. Should a team favour one driver over the other in order to maximise championship points? Is it wrong to give one driver the advantage because he is ahead in the championship?

In 2002, the issue hit the news in a big way. The Austrian Grand Prix took place in May of that year, and featured possibly the most controversial, and certainly the most blatant use of team orders that the sport had ever witnessed. At the time, team orders weren’t illegal, but good sportsmanship was still encouraged and manipulation frowned upon.

Rubens Barrichello had been consistently fast throughout the weekend. He was ahead of teammate Michael Schumacher in the practice sessions, and he took pole position. He led the majority of the race, but at the very end, was told to let Schumacher past. Schumacher was already leading the championship by plenty, whilst his team mate had yet to break into double figures. This win took Schumacher’s total to 27 points clear of his next rival, Montoya, but Ferrari clearly thought he needed all the points he could get. With just a few metres to go before the finish line, Barrichello, who actually could have used the extra points, allowed the sister car past, much to the viewing public’s disgust.

When the time came for the top three drivers to take to the podium, The drivers received only boos and jeers, and so Schumacher stepped onto the second place position, and encouraged Barrichello to take his place on the top step. He still took all the points though, saying: “I thank Barrichello for the points, but I am not happy.” The BBC reported the incident at the time with the headline: “Schumacher Steals Austrian Win.”

Although everyone knew that team orders went on, there had never previously been such an obvious and unnecessary manipulation of race results. The public, rival teams and other drivers, were not happy and the FIA were inundated with complaints. They hastily arranged a meeting to try and come up with a solution to the problem. They did not have an easy job ahead of them.

The rules had been adjusted a couple of times, due to a less severe incident a couple of years previous, and were left a little, shall we say, ambiguous. The basic gist of the legislation meant it was acceptable for a team to favour one driver and demand the other to play a support role, but it was not acceptable for a team to interfere with a race unnecessarily.” Not exactly explicit.

The team argued that if Schumacher lost the championship by only a couple of points, then they would end up looking stupid that Barrichello was the one who prevented him from being victorious.

After much deliberation, the FIA came to the conclusion that they could not punish the team for what had happened on track, as technically it was not illegal. They said Ferrari had handled it clumsily, but no penalty could be imposed. What they did was issue a $1 million fine for the antics on the podium. The FIA are very particular about their podium ceremony and no one is allowed to mess with it, especially people who are only just escaping sanction anyway. Half was suspended for a year, and the $500,000 immediately payable was to be shared between Ferrari, Schumacher and Barrichello. Compared to the budgets of the three, a $500,000 split was not particularly taxing.

To ease the public outrage, Max Mosley set up a Working Group to discuss the team orders problem, and even went so far as to ask the public opinion on the subject. Eventually, they came to the conclusion that team orders should be banned.

Such a rule is incredibly difficult to implement and control, however. These days, all it takes is for a driver to be told via the pit-to-car radio that his teammate is quicker. No explicit orders are given, but everyone involved knows what that means and what needs to be done.

Even if a driver is not playing the team game, a mechanic could quite conceivably make a small mistake during the pit stop that costs a few seconds, and allows the favoured driver to get ahead.

Meanwhile, the public quite rightly continue to debate, complain, and generally badger the FIA for a more concise, understandable and measurable ruling on the matter.

That wraps up another episode of Days that Shook the F1 World. Don’t forget to join me tomorrow for the fourth important day in our series.

Theme music: Dylan in the Movies, Better Days and Causeway, Change in My Lifetime.