Alonso and Hamilton would continue to race as the governing body of the sport, International Automobile Federation, charged the Vodafone-McLaren Mercedes team with a fine of $100 million and, McLaren are likely to lose more than their fine on finishing net bottom of the 2007 constructor’s championship.
The decision was based on the verdict that it wouldn’t be the drivers who would be penalized rather the team, which they belong too, would be liable for the entire affair. Ultimately, the harsh blow was delivered in the form of charging them heavily, hurting the pocket, something that means the most to all teams competing.
Alonso was in regular contact with Pedro De La Rosa through e-mails and he disclosed the setting out of Ferrari’s weight distribution to two decimal places on each of Ferrari’s two cars, as they geared up for the Australian Edition of the race.
Indeed, Ped Rosa first told Alonso about the reliability of the news as Nigel Stepney, their former chief mechanic, relayed all that. Nigel’s direct ally was his former colleague, Mike Coughlan, McLaren’s current chief designer.
Nigel was upset about his new boss once Ross Brawn left the scene. This disappointment prompted him to furnish important information to Coughlan regarding the cars and the team strategy.
McLaren maintains that the exchange of documents, which happened between the two in a copy shop in Working London, where the McLaren office is based, hasn’t been put to any advantage by their team although the same was contravened advocating that the level of advantage taken cannot be measured and hence the whopping penalty.
The use of those documents has been denied but what was maintained even by McLaren was the fact that Stepney and Coughlan were in contact although they didn’t have a choice did they as the Italian Police presented the records back in June. They revealed that there were 288 text messages and 35 telephone calls between March 11 and July 3 exchanged between the two.
The other factor McLaren team argued on was that they supported the enquiry in the last stages by providing the evidence after he became aware of the entire plot at the Hungarian Prix.
McLaren though would feel relieved as other than the heavy fine and a minor ban from another version of the race, there two top stars would continue to race beholding the positions they have in this years competition until now.
McLaren had thought off other consequences and they would feel lucky not to concede any points against the charges upheld, neither did the dangerous duo lose their standings but a shock of $100 million isn’t an easy pill to swallow. Another sport that is tarnished by the info-sharing controversy, name one, which sans all this, remember chess ain’t an entity!
[Courtesy: Bleacher Report]
