Bryan Watts

The issue isn't whether the FIA cleared it, but whether the FIA shows bias towards Ferrari over other teams. Was segregation right because the governing body said it was? Of course not, because people were being treated unfairly.

Nano

F1 rules have been stretched every singe year, from the start. Every year there is suspect stuff, borderline legal stuff, and illegal stuff. Welcome to F1! I am amazed, baffled and puzzled on why people get their panties in a twist each year. Racing wouldn't be what it is withoug engineers blowing their brains out trying to find a way around the rules.

GO_ANALOG

Amen!!!


For the Above Ferrari haters/BMW drivers:

I love F1 as is! I have no preference as to who wins. If you win by whatever means the FIA allows, then good on ya!

If you don't like the way the FIA regulates F1, then NASCAR and their "future car" one car solution may suite ya better! No thanks!

Regards!

Geo

I could be wrong, but it sounds like you are relatively new to F1. The FIA bias towards Ferrari goes back before even the FISA-FOCA war.

I swear the "old man" had a picture of Bernie wtih a goat.

multi21

Nano

I love reading the autosport atlas forums. There was a nice thread about this issue a while back. (can't post link, low post count). A good part of the bias bitching group is made up of F1 and/or Ferrari haters. Blaming one team winning or sucking on FIA bias is lame. Honestly, in general I think FIA did a good job the last 30 years.

why do people who find FIA so appalling still watch F1?

GO_ANALOG

Goat, Ha ha... that may be true.

No, not new to F1. The first race I attended as a child was the 69 German GP, I know... Who cares...

FIA or Bernie’s love of Ferrari… They’ve helped make men rich. Nowhere in the above statement did I make any suggestion to the contrary.

The fact is Schumie is a great driver, Ferrari's reliability was impeccable, the teams discipline to deliver the whole package is what won Ferrari multiple championships not because the FIA or Bernie prefer they win. The same for Renault the last two years. Which is what Kimi didn't deliver while at or have in McLaren, whatever your take on that.

I’m sure the reason Williams is not a leading constructor is that the governing body and the owner of the F1 franchise prefers that Ferrari win, or is it because they developed a chassis that didn't work or is it because they lost their “BMW POWER”, I wonder how much the Speed announcers got paid each time they said “BMW POWER”… and no I’m not a BMW or a Williams hater.

Why not just hate Porsche, they’ve never abused the rules to their advantage. They’ve never killed a racing series, oh… wait Can Am… They didn't bend the rules with the 917, 935, 956, or the 962.

I was simply agreeing with Nano’s statement. In any racing series, a passionate race engineer looks for that something to flex the rules and give his team the edge. That is especially what I like about F1. Passionate Engineering! FIA please don’t turn F1 into something that resembles NASCAR!

I personally don't prefer one team over the other. We need them all to be uniquely creative, that's F1. May the best win. And right now it apears to be Ferrari.

Kindest Regards to all…

Geo

I cannot argue against any of that.

I don't think Bernie or the FIA orchestrates results in any way. That would be exceedingly difficult. However, Ferrari (regardless of on-track performance) always seems to get favorable treatment from the FIA.

Juan Lopez

F1 is supposed to promote vehicle development. Sometimes these will break the rules, sometimes it will be so confusing that it cannot be policed. For example if the measurement of flex is pushing in one direction only they'll make sure they comply with that.

Let's not forget who won many races in a desk by carefully reading the rules and how to make the best (or manipulate them) of them...............................Porsche.

If Ferrari are cheating, penalize them. If they are just plain faster, try harder then.

Not taking sides here.

A.Wayne

Correct regarding the favoritism ,

but i will go one step further and say there has been a lot of manipulation in F1 over the last decade , some blatantly others very covert , but it is all obvious if you want to see it. The race result are sometimes orchestrated before or during the event, not all the time and of course there are on track events that will change things. but a lot does not add up and these of course can be debated .

Most recently , alonso team mates at renault , truilli and Fisi. Truilli while at renault was the match of alonso , Alonso did not show any advantage to truilli did not win more than truili , yet trulli was replaced for Fisa , who was already proven to be slower than truili , with Fisi as team mate alonso was made to shine , winning races then W/C while fisi looked liked a complete dud ( which he is ) and yet this guy was retained as their No. 1 driver, I have never seen anyone underachieve as much as fisi in a top team and still had a job after 5 races , much less 2 yrs and then get promoted to no 1. status .. was fisi retained to market his teammate ?

If you want to get into F1 you need the right guys, not just talent, talent is secondary , as witnessed by many talented drivers who could not and did not get chances .. Keke Rosberg nodded to this when 5 years ago, he could tell you who would be in F1 based on their managers,he said and i quote , Nico will be in F1 because of me and Hamilton because of Ron, all the others is just wasting their time .. now are these guys good drivers , yes , but so were others, less fortunate to not have todt 's son or rosberg etc.as their manager.

Hamilton is in f1` because of dennis they groomed him etc, yes he is very good , but if he did not have dennis as a contact he would be in a red bull beside scott speed. at best , he is now given every opportunity to succeed and marketed as such. you wanna bet now that Hamilton star has been launched , the need fora button is less for the british market , so now the underachieving
button will start to have issues ...( Just as how JV was kept around for the canadian and N. American market, but his better and faster teammate was sacrificed for his image, when at bar ) now before all the whining start from the newbies , in the end the driver still has to drive , but just as in australia , things looked like alonso got help , there is a marketing force at play and they will protect the F1 driver image at all cost . Remember renault had a moving aerodynamic devise that was mounted inside the car at the drivers feet . Ferrari has never been fined for an infraction , never! why is Coulthard still driving ? or fisi still with 2 W/C renault, or ralf still a have a job ? when there are serious talent waiting in the wings. Or the ever popular at the time cart series with zanardi at the top creating euro appeal , then wait , what this ?
an offer to come to f1 withthe top team at the time , to a average back marker ex F1 driver , thinks about this why would F1 need Zanardi , it was to slow down Cart's popularity , if he succeeds, then good for f1 , if he failed , it would show again cart was secondary to f1 , win -win.

Luis will never be allowed to beat alonso this year, i will predict that to show how obvious this is, Why? because alonso is the MAN in F1 , he was passed the mantle , this year is the alonso and Kimi show they will be the gladiators to produce this new and exciting F1 , hamilton will be allowed to join the Frey next year or the year after , he was not allowed to finish in front of alonso for this mare reason . The Image , there is nothing to gain in diminishing the value of your only W/C.........Time will tell....

Flying Finn

I'm always more impressed about the level of spys all the teams have.

All the teams "cheat" (it's more like bending the rules or just being innovative, a'la Renault's mass damper, McLaren's extra brake pedal, Ferrari's moving wing etc.) or try to cheat or if they don't they're stupid and for sure not in front pack.

I agree, whining (Ron is very good at it and does it often) is stupid, everyone should be innovative and try to find holes in rules more. The way Ken Tyrrel or Colin Chapman used to do, of course nowadays it's harder but still. Like mass damber or that extra brake pedal (and maybe this Ferrari's floor plank), I think they were/are brilliant examples of being innovative.

Flying Finn

+1

Enough of this bitching about 12 hours, it was racing and racing is hard some times.
Melo outdrove Bergmeister and was smarter than him. Anyone who says they would've not done the same as Melo did is lying or is not hard/good enough to race at 12 hours.

Nano

You analysis is interesting, but you make it sound worse than it really is. It's perfectly normal, F1 is the foremost motorsport event in the world, image marketing, self preservation and basic economic strategies are to be expected. If ALMS one days reaches the grandeur of F1, same thing will happen there. These "manipulations" as you call them, occur in evey series in the world, they just don't have the scale or coverage that F1 has.

Also, Luis didn't win because he drove worse than Alonso, simple and evident. He Made a few blatant errors and was actually lucky not to spin. He was held up in the pits by an unfortunate circumstance, and Alonso passed him. Expect to see other mistakes from Luis in the following GPs.

As for Ferrari, they were the team most penalized with the rule changes of 2005. They went from a 15/18 wins in 2004 to 1/19 wins in 2005. On them never being penalized on other technical/strategic decisions, it's another pointless discussion. It's like saying someone is a crook because he never went to jail. There is no substantiating evidence that FIA ruled differently for Ferrari than it did for any others. FIA ruling does seem inconsistent at times(especially with the top teams), this was true for Williams, Mclaren, Renault, Lotus, and others. But I don't beliee FIA, the stewards, the international court of appeals or the world motorsport council ruled with bias, or manipulated results in any of those circumstances as well. They did make a few bad calls, but I wouldn't call it bias, just bad decisions and incompetence. (be it noted that a lot of F1 rules never were set in stone, this is a charachteristc of F1, and it has been consistent with rulings on different teams and drivers)

MJSpeed

The mass damper wasn't illegal when developed, but the rules were change half-way through to make it so.

As for Ferrari being the darling in F1's eye, well it is. As for F1 fixing results, NOT true. Having said that I'll say this, some rule changes throughout the years do seem to favor them more than any other team...let the conspiracy theories fly!!

There's a very thin line between innovation and cheating...the definition of which is which is left up to the engineers' interpretations.

Enjoy F1 with its "faults" and all. Remember the alternative is IRL, ChampCar and NASCAR (with the "CAR OF TOMORROW!!").

Nano

that's not exactly it. The Damper was first deemed legal by the stewards. Fia appealed the rulling of the stewards, the international court of appeal ruled in favor of FIA as the damper was an infringement to the technical regulations regarding aerodymaic influence. It should also be noted that when the mass damper was made illegal, 7 teams were using it, including Ferrari. Mclaren was the team who brought the system under scrutiny.