Comments on: Mosley misses the point about Ferrari International Assistance jibes

By: Alan Donnelly inadvertently reveals FIA’s Ferrari bias « vee8 - a Formula 1 blog

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 11:04:46 +0000

[...] postsWelcome to Formula None, where racing is illegalBernie and Max are penpals!Mosley misses the point about Ferrari International Assistance jibesWhat the rules say (or rather, what they don’t say)Focus on Ferrari’s [...]

By: guille2306

guille2306 — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:05:53 +0000

Exactly, the same example this year is the ‘bridge’ flexible front wing at McLaren and Renault. My point is that all the teams play at the edge of the rules, it was always like that. And some of them are better in the game of not getting caught. It’s not a problem of bias pro-Ferrari, it’s a problem of FIA incompetence in general, but that Ferrari appears to deal better with

By: doctorvee

doctorvee — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:43:09 +0000

guille, well remembered, although I think that was actually a part that was already illegal, but the rule was just ‘clarified’ by the FIA after McLaren made an inquiry. A bit like the moveable aero stuff.

By: guille2306

guille2306 — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:41:13 +0000

One example of Ferrari innovation banned by the FIA: the ‘flexible’ car floor in Australia last year. OK, it wasn’t precisely an innovation but taking advantage of a ‘grey area’ of the regulations, but you get the idea. I think that Ferrari is punished less in those occasions just because it plays the game a little better than other teams (and that includes not biting the hand that will punish you…)

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Advertising Space | Sidepodcast : Your Weekly F1 Podcast — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:59:25 +0000

[...] his site today, DoctorVee offers a fine analysis of a recent in depth Mosley interview conducted by Adam Parsons of the BBC. It’s well worth a [...]

By: 2008 Japanese Formula 1 GP - Wolf’s Race Preview | F1 Wolf

2008 Japanese Formula 1 GP - Wolf’s Race Preview | F1 Wolf — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:25:57 +0000

[...] fashion for 18 laps. Ferraris messed up the tyres and had to pit following the orders from FIA (hey, there really are times FIA rules against Marenello). At that point it looked like that blunder handed the 2007 title to Lewis Hamilton (before he [...]

By: F1Wolf

F1Wolf — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:14:25 +0000

funny no one has spotted that until now imagine if Adam Parsons in that interview with Mosley replied his Raikkonen Monaco example in the same way Don commented here

By: doctorvee

doctorvee — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:31:32 +0000

Don,

Wow, I hadn’t realised that at all! Good work spotting that. So Raikkonen actually was advantaged by getting a drive-through in Monaco rather than the penalty he ought to have been given. You really couldn’t make it up.

By: Don Speekingleesh

Don Speekingleesh — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:49:34 +0000

And of course Mosley picked a very bad example too, because the stewards didn’t follow the rules:
Article 38.5 When the three minute signal is shown all cars must have their wheels fitted, after this signal wheels may
only be removed in the pit lane or on the grid during a race suspension.
Any car which does not have all its wheels fully fitted at the three minute signal must start the race from
the back of the grid or the pit lane. Under these circumstances a marshal holding a yellow flag will prevent
the car (or cars) from leaving the grid until all cars able to do so have left to start the formation lap.

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:57:31 +0000

I was impressed the interviewer dared to bring it up, and unimpressed by Mosley’s response for pretty much the same reason as you.

It’s a typically political response of Mosley’s to try to win an argument by mis-representing what the other person’s viewpoint is. As you correctly point out, when there’s a clear violation and a cut-and-dried penalty, the very least one expects of the FIA is to enforce its own rules as written.

It’s when the FIA has to make a judgement call on a ‘grey area’ of the regulations – these ‘unwritten rules’ I’ve been writing about recently – that one gets the impression Ferrari gets the rub of the green.

But I still think a lot of it is just bad governance on the FIA’s part rather than any over-arching pro-Ferrari conspiracy. Regulations that allow a driver to be stripped of a win and deny him the right to appeal are plainly unjust.