Belgian Grand Prix Review

The decision to exclude McLaren from this year's constructors' title and to fine them US$100 million divided the paddock along unusual lines. Flavio Briatore, who was amazed that McLaren had escaped punishment in July, now thought the penalty harsh. Spyker's Colin Kolles considered McLaren lucky not to have been punished further. Max Mosley wanted McLaren banned and their drivers thrown out of the championship, but Bernie Ecclestone was the one who brought the penalty down to a fine.

As much as this writer has a personal preference for Ferrari over McLaren, the reasoning of the WMSC is nothing but illogical from a legal and evidentiary perspective. Firstly, as journalist Peter Windsor says, it must be remembered that this whole sorry saga began with Ferrari not being able to keep its house in order and a disgruntled employee (but then an employee nonetheless for which Ferrari is vicariously liable) leaking secret information. And yet Ferrari are the ones who stand to gain the most.

Secondly, the evidence of much phone and SMS contact between Nigel Stepney and Mike Coughlan, and emails between Coughlan, Pedro de la Rosa and Fernando Alonso, certainly looks damning, no doubt. It shows a far greater dissemination of information than first thought. But, although the FIA suspects, not without reason, that Coughlan may have also discussed the information with his group, and de la Rosa with his testing overseers, there is no proof of that.

Thirdly, the reason for there being no penalty in July was because, whilst McLaren's possession of the information was not in question, there was no proof that it was used to McLaren's advantage. But even now, there is still no proof of that. Even the FIA in its judgment says that it may be impossible to concretely establish whether or how the information has been used by McLaren. There is only evidence of an intention to make use of it and a strong suspicion that they have made use of it. But that's it.

Then, as Martin Brundle has said, which self-respecting engineer would not try to make use of information they came across? They always try things based on info gleaned from paddock gossip, and from photos of external details. The source is different; Ferrari's information was confidential whereas somehow paddock gossip and photographs are apparently accepted sources and fair game. But the intention to use that information, and the doubts as to whether or not that conveys an advantage, are exactly the same.

Taking all that into account, how was the situation any different from July in terms of proving how McLaren used Ferrari's information? Why were they now penalised? If they were penalised, implying that there has been some guilt, why have they been allowed to continue racing? Why the loss of all their constructors' points which does not seem to have much direct relevance? A fine was understandable but of that magnitude (insert comment about starving African children here)?

On one hand, but for vicarious liability and the promise of immunity for McLaren's drivers, personal penalties or bans for Coughlan and even for de la Rosa seemed more appropriate. On the other hand, Mosley wanted Lewis Hamilton and Alonso thrown out of this year's drivers' title, because of the suspicion that they have had an unfair advantage over Ferrari. On any objective view, however, if Raikkonen loses the title it is as much due to Ferrari unreliability as it is to Hamilton and Alonso beating him.

The ramifications of this ham-fisted decision-making, which reeks of hidden agendas and the FIA's legendary Ferrari favouritism, are wide and various. McLaren's fine, which is actually not as big because it will be off-set by their prizemoney this year, is one thing, but their exclusion from the constructors' championship will have flow-on effects into 2008 in terms of travel allowance funding, pit lane position, even space for motorhomes. Looks like it may be time for the Brand Centre to be downsized.

And what precedents does this entire situation set? Has McLaren been singled out or is the FIA going to get tough on rogue employees acting without their team's knowledge? Don't forget, Benetton escaped heavier sanctions back in 1994 for tampering with refuelling equipment because that had apparently been the work of a junior employee only. The FIA seem to have hardly cared that Toyota employees have also been found in possession of secret Ferrari material.

What does this mean for how teams gain and use information and protect intellectual property? Where do you draw a line between what is legal and illegal? Where do various sources of info fall along the spectrum - paddock gossip, accidental leaks, photos, the details in an engineer's head as he moves from team to team? And what about radio eavesdropping? Raikkonen gave evidence that McLaren used to listen to Ferrari radio; Mika Salo has already told the Finnish press that Ferrari used to do the same.

McLaren may elect not to appeal the decision and risk even more severe punishment in the interests of achieving closure after what has been a traumatic number of months since May, including the Monaco team orders investigation, Spy-gate times two, Quali-gate and the imploding relationship between their drivers, and a fine for a non-crash-tested gearbox. But even if there is no appeal and this is the end of the matter, the FIA has unsatisfactorily left behind a lot of inconsistent loose ends.

Ferrari could hardly care less about any of that at the moment. All that matters is that they have now sealed the constructors' title, even if in a somewhat hollow manner, and that they were in imperious form at Spa. Raikkonen won his third consecutive Belgian GP and looked unbeatable all weekend. For the first time in six races the Ferrari drivers haven't swapped championship positions, and with a seven-point gap over Felipe Massa, surely the team must get behind his faint championship challenge.

It will be interesting to see how Massa plays the team game from this point onwards. Pace-wise, he's no clear number two to Raikkonen; indeed, he set another fastest lap of the race, and his Q3 effort on heavier tanks was outstanding, all this despite persistent reliability concerns especially in the rear suspension area. It's just that practically he is without much of a prayer in the drivers' championship, and he will simply jeopardise his team's chances if he doesn't play rear gunner for Kimi.

Both Alonso and Hamilton's fastest race laps were within 0.2s of the Ferraris, but they couldn't sustain Ferrari-matching pace all weekend. Both attempted to fuel slightly longer at their first stops, but it was all a token gesture because they were never any real threat to the red cars. Indeed, the only real story of note in McLarens' race was Fernando and Lewis' first lap stoush. It started at La Source, where on exit Alonso seemed to deliberately push Hamilton wide onto the run-off tarmac.

It wasn't particularly fair, in that it gave Lewis absolutely zero racing room, but it did send the rookie a message that if he wanted to play aggressive, Alonso was up for that kind of game. That continued as the two hair-raisingly went into Eau Rouge side-by-side, and for a split second there was a tangible hint of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. Fernando looked as though he was never ever going to give way. Either Lewis lifted, or Alonso seemed content for them to have a massive accident.

On this occasion the Englishman relented, and after yet another seemingly tentative race - it is fair to say that his form has plateaued a bit since Indianapolis - for the first time all year he finished off the podium in a race where he had no real problem. But crucially he still has the championship lead. And that means that, once he's thought things through a bit more, Alonso's current aggression on the track might encourage him to be more uncompromising himself. You can do that when you're in the points lead...

Robert Kubica was actually the faster of the BMW drivers, but after an engine change, his two-stop strategy was interesting. You would have thought a one-stopper was the way to go, but perhaps the team wanted to have some fun rather than play it conservatively. It didn't work. He took too long to pass Kovalainen before a nice lunge at the Bus Stop from a long way back, but then got caught up by David Coulthard after his first stop, which meant he ended up back behind Kovalainen after his second stop.

Williams celebrated another fine 6th place, which put him back in front of Alexander Wurz in the points. It was another case of superb sustained pace all weekend from Nico, in contrast with his team-mate's erratic race. The Austrian had a lazy spin at the Bus Stop early on, made a move on Jarno Trulli just as he was due to pit, and had another off at Les Combes at which point he was passed by Sakon Yamamoto before retiring. More than enough to hand him the 'Reject of the Race' award this time.

The gap between Rosberg and Wurz makes you wonder whether Nico is transcending the FW29, or whether Alex is simply under-performing. To a lesser extent, there are similar questions at Red Bull, where Webber once again had the upper hand over Coulthard. Mark was excellent in qualifying, and his pass on Kovalainen early in the race was exceptional, squeezing the Renault driver and forcing the Finn to brake early, but having the presence of mind to sweep back left to still take the best line into Les Combes.

He then did enough to stay clear of Kovalainen despite the latter making one fewer stop, and in his 100th GP start deserved his points for 7th. It was a much quieter run for DC, who only caught the attention for the wrong reasons, when he was being hounded and almost overtaken by Adrian Sutil's Spyker. Apart from Spain, that has rather been the story of DC's season. One wonders what value Red Bull sees in him at the moment to keep him on for 2008.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Alexander Wurz
Another lacklustre performance

For Fisi, there seems to be no way out of his current implosion, and with the McLarens, Ferraris and BMWs in the field, plus the current form of his team-mate, Rosberg and Webber, it's hard to see how Giancarlo will score any more points this season or how he will save his place in F1. He's not helped by the fact that Renault's decision to focus on 2008 and abandon development on this year's car is showing, plus there are noises that Ron Dennis wants to drag them into the Spy-gate affair as well.

Toyota continue along aimlessly. There was more flattering free practice form, another top ten grid slot for Jarno Trulli, but another poor start from the Italian and another wasted afternoon, especially when he was on a two-stop strategy and team-mate Ralf Schumacher on a one-stopper, and by the first lap the German was already ahead. Trulli spent the first third of the race battling Adrian Sutil in the Spyker, and one isn't sure if that says more about the improved Spyker, or more about Toyota's plight.

Toro Rosso had an improved weekend. After being upstaged at Monza by Sebastian Vettel, Vitantonio Liuzzi impressed again. He was up as high as 6th in Q1 as everyone found a lot more grip and pace on their second runs, made it into Q2 and there out-qualified Wurz in the Williams. A 12th place finish after a solid run represented his best finish of the year. Vettel retired early, but contrary to the stir he has created in the paddock, he is still yet to do anything particularly noteworthy in a Toro Rosso.

Compared to Monza, there were no more heroics from Honda at Spa, where aero ability comes back to the fore. Yet again Jenson Button had the better of Rubens Barrichello before he eventually retired with hydraulics failure, although both suffered the ignominy of being passed by Takuma Sato in the Super Aguri during the race. Sato's move around the outside of Button going into Les Combes was terrific, but it must have been galling for the folk at Brackley.

He then proceeded to look for a way past Coulthard, and on several occasions got alongside; with a little bit more aggression he may have forced his way past. But with Adrian, his rookie season has shown that he has too fine a margin for error, and as his soft tyres became worn he went off as Trulli re-passed him into Les Combes, and being on a two-stop strategy whereas most of his rivals were one-stopping, he eventually slid to 14th by the chequered flag. But the point had been made nonetheless.

Spyker's improvement turned out to be bad news for Super Aguri. With financial worries and a year-old car that's hardly being developed, Belgium was their worst weekend of the season, and Spyker's upturn threatens to relegate them to the very back of the grid. With rumours abounding also that Honda forbade them from using the front wing that they had intended to run, which if true signals that Super Aguri's main funder may be looking to set them adrift, one sadly wonders about the team's future.

It was a dynamic race from Sato, which included passing both Hondas as mentioned above, and it was also the first weekend in a while in which he has clearly had the better of team-mate Davidson who rather struggled all meeting. Taku now heads to his home race, the Japanese GP, where he has always been particularly inspired, although this year he will not have the advantage of racing at Suzuka as the event returns to Fuji for the first time since 1977.