Lewis Hamilton has yet again found himself in the middle of a row about his on-track actions. This time there are accusations that he blocked Kimi Räikkönen during qualifying.

When I watched it on television I felt that Hamilton did not do enough to get out of Räikkönen’s way, but to me there was no clear intention to block Kimi Räikkönen. So Hamilton wasn’t completely innocent, but he wasn’t completely guilty either.

The FIA have handed out draconian punishments for less obvious cases of “impeding” another driver, so once again it looks as though they are turning a blind eye to Hamilton’s transgressions. However, as I pointed out two days ago, the FIA’s rules often border on the ridiculous, and the “impeding” rule is one of them.

That is not to say that I think drivers should get away with deliberately blocking other drivers. But all too often we see drivers getting handed a five-position grid penalty for seemingly little reason at all. The most graphic example of this was when Fernando Alonso was penalised at last year’s Italian Grand Prix for “impeding” Felipe Massa, who was hundreds of metres behind.

In order to justify a punishment, surely it must be demonstrated that a driver deliberately intended to cost the other driver time. I know this is not what the FIA rule says, but this is how it should be in my view. And it looked to me as though Hamilton did not intend to cost Kimi Räikkönen time. Räikkönen was put off, for sure, but I didn’t think there was much else Hamilton could to about the situation.

That is what I used to think. However, having read some of his post-qualifying interviews, I am less than convinced that Hamilton is innocent here. This is because a lot of what Hamilton says appears to be steaming bullshit.

There’s no reason for me to do anything to Kimi…

Hah! We all know that that is completely false. Yeah, there’s no reason other than the fact that he is a Championship rival and this is the last race of the season!

…when you’re at that sort of speed your mirrors are vibrating and you can’t see too much.

Oh what a load of bum! It might be true that the mirrors are vibrating, but surely Hamilton is used to this by now. They must be usable — otherwise there would be no point in having them. He wasn’t even going at full speed, so they wouldn’t have been vibrating as much as normal.

And Hamilton would be among the first to complain when a back-marker doesn’t get out of his way quickly enough. I’ll be ready to pull out this quote the next time Hamilton complains about back-markers not looking in their mirrors.

This is what I mean when I call Hamilton smarmy and arrogant. He just cooks up these bad excuses all the time and expects to get away with it. What’s worse is that he actually does get away with it! He might as well smirk, say “it wisnae me” and run off.

Hamilton’s comments came during an exchange with a journalist for L’Equipe, Anne Giuntini. Giuntini came in for criticism for instigating a “ridiculous exchange”. It does indeed seem as though the journalist went way over the top.

But she made several good points. Her first question (not in perfect English, but the gist of the question is clear), “Is everything good to become a world champion?” is perfectly valid. As I have pointed out several times on this blog, Hamilton’s on-track actions have sometimes been downright ugly. And if you ask me there have been enough of these questionable actions to keep Michael Schumacher satisfied for three seasons, never mind one incomplete season.

Hamilton’s attempt to turn one of Giuntini’s questions back on the journalist showed that he completely missed the point of the question.

“Is that what you call the best job?” Giuntini continued.

…

Hamilton: “Yes. How are you at your job? Are you the best at your job? You never made mistakes….no?”

Giuntini asked Hamilton about his cheating. In reply, Hamilton sarcastically asked Giuntini about her mistakes — a complete strawman.

Giuntini’s final question is the best for me. And Hamilton’s response is the most revealing.

“Do you think you can do everything you want and then you just apologise - is that the way it works in Formula One?”

“I’m not going to answer that,” Hamilton finally snapped. “I just don’t want to talk to you, to be honest.”

Giuntini’s question is, for me, a sound interpretation of Hamilton’s behaviour this season. Hamilton refused to answer the question, which speaks volumes to me.

I can only think of two reasons for Hamilton’s reaction. Either Hamilton really does think he can do whatever he wants as long as he apologises later, or he simply does not accept the idea of being held to account for his actions.

• F1Fanatic: Journalist gives Hamilton a grilling
• Planet-F1: Hamilton embroiled in yet more controversy
• Autosport: Hamilton meets his fiercest rival yet

Lewis Hamilton has been at it again with the whining. This time he is “fuming” over the fact that Fernando Alonso had the audacity to try and have a motor race with him. In the middle of a Grand Prix as well! Whatever will happen next!

It is true that Hamilton was forced onto the run-off area by Alonso’s aggressive move. But you see such a thing happen probably about a dozen times a year. It is just part of motor racing. Indeed, Hamilton himself came very close to doing the same thing to Felipe Massa at Monza last week.

It was an immensely exciting start. The possibility of fireworks between Alonso and Hamilton is real and mouthwatering. We almost got that at Spa with the battle at the first corner. What’s more, Hamilton got a good run out of La Source and ended up going side-by-side with Alonso into the entry to the intimidating Eau Rouge corner.

This is what motor racing is about. If Hamilton doesn’t like it, he ought to go fishing instead.

This has turned out to be McLaren’s annus horribilis when it should have been a year of celebration. After an unprecedented series of years in the doldrums on the track, McLaren have finally gone back to their winning ways. But off the track, it is difficult to imagine what else could have gone wrong.

It would have been bad enough had it just been the Stepneygate scandal from which McLaren (at the time) escaped any harsh punishment (probably rightly given the evidence there was at the time). But despite escaping punishment, the cloud of suspicion lingered, the media was not impressed and the tifosi were livid.

But there have also been rows over team orders and the status of the drivers which was kicked off by a deterioration in the relationship between Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. McLaren probably have the two best drivers in the world in their cars, but instead of being an unmitigated success it has turned out to be a disaster.

At Hungary the FIA stepped in to prevent McLaren from scoring constructors’ points due to what was essentially an issue between the two drivers. It was harsh to levy such a heavy penalty on McLaren due to something that the team itself was seemingly quite peripheral to.

Then at Monza the race stewards decided to fine the team $50,000 for running a lightweight gearbox at the Hungaroring. The race stewards say that the new gearbox should have been crash tested prior to being run. For their part, McLaren say they were open with the FIA at all times about the existence their new gearbox.

Even if the FIA were not made aware of the situation, you have to ask the question: what were the Italian stewards doing passing judgement on something that happened two races ago? There is a discussion on this over at BlogF1. This is the equivalent of a referee in a football match giving a footballer a yellow card for something he did three weeks ago.

This is not to say that the FIA should not have punished McLaren. But the race stewards are not the people to do it. And the scrutineers at Hungary were seemingly okay with the new gearbox. It all looks a bit fishy to me, particularly since it happened at the Italian Grand Prix. Italy is, of couse, the country where Ferrari almost rivals Catholicism as the biggest religion.

A similar thing happened last year at the Italian Grand Prix when Fernando Alonso was penalised for “blocking” a Ferrari that was a hundred metres behind him. The video of the entire lap is still available. Yes, that distant speck on the horizon is meant to be blocking Felipe Massa. The only people in the world who actually believe this are FIArrari.

But the FIA does not have to be in Italy to unfairly find in favour of Ferrari and against every single other team. Jackie Stewart rightly pointed this out today.

Now the whole Stepneygate saga is being opened up again, and the World Motor Sport Council is meeting on Thursday to discuss it. It will be a big day for Formula 1. Will the FIA cave into their pro-Ferrari instincts and award the Scuderia the Championship in the courtroom? Or will they act like the governing body of a sport and allow the Championship to be won and lost on the racetrack?

This series of events has prompted some to ask: are McLaren being picked on by the FIA this season? Craig has also taken a look at this. Many have mentioned the fact that FIA president Max Mosley has a pretty frosty relationship with Ron Dennis. The FIA deny that there is a witch hunt, but they would say that wouldn’t they?

For what it’s worth, I do not think that the FIA are deliberately singling out McLaren. At least, not beyond the extent we have come to expect from the FIA’s pro-Ferrari bias. But I think the adverse reaction to the original WMSC hearing in July has encouraged the FIA to punish McLaren heavily for the slightest wrongdoing.

The FIA are quite right to re-open the Stepneygate case if they think there is sufficient evidence. The integrity of the sport is important, and if McLaren are found to have benefited from Ferrari documents then they should face a heavy punishment.

But to me, it just does not stack up for the reasons I explained in my previous post on Stepneygate. The McLaren car had already been built by the time Mike Coughlan got his hands on the documents, and from then on basing developments on Ferrari blueprints would surely be like trying to piece together pieces from two different jigsaw puzzles.

But the whole saga became much more serious when drivers became involved. It is suggested that Fernando Alonso gained some insight into set-up data as a result of an email conversation with test driver Pedro de la Rosa, who is good buddies with Mike Coughlan.

This could prove crucial because beforehand McLaren had claimed that no employee was aware of the Ferrari information except for Mike Coughlan. If it transpires that de la Rosa and Alonso also knew, then there could be serious consequences.

A lot of people are asking themselves how the FIA could punish McLaren (if they are found guilty) without damaging the great story of this World Championship — particularly the emergence of the hugely exciting Lewis Hamilton. There is a nasty idea in my head that the FIA could end up punishing McLaren and punishing Alonso (because of the emails) but exonerating Hamilton. That way, Hamilton can win the World Championship while McLaren still get punished.

Yesterday Rory left a comment on this blog pointing out that the rumoured conversation between de la Rosa and Alonso was infact a fabrication. But that does not mean that the emails did not exist. They could have contained perfectly innocent information — or it could have been far worse than suggested by La Gazzetta dello Sport.

For the integrity of F1, and for the sake of this year’s fantastic World Championship, let us hope it is the former.

Update: See also Formula 1 Insight: Sport and Politics in Formula One.

Well, that was a surprise. The Italian Grand Prix seemed destined to be dull. Monza is an anomaly in today’s Formula 1. It is a fast slipstreaming circuit in an age where slipstreaming is effectively discouraged by the aerodynamic features of the cars. We saw last year how it is impossible for F1 cars to follow closely on a circuit like Monza.

But the funny thing about Formula 1 is that whenever you are ready to give up and declare overtaking to be officially impossible, away they go and start overtaking each other! Suzuka 2005 springs to mind as well. Okay, so Monza 2007 cannot hold a candle to Suzuka 2005. But it was still a pleasant surprise to see what was expected to be a processional race turn out to be quite interesting.

Most impressive of all was Lewis Hamilton. He might not be the nicest person, but his racing is absolutely superb. His start line battle with Felipe Massa was firm but fair, and a joy to watch.

And his amazing lunge on Kimi Räikkönen towards the end of the race is surely a contender for move of the year. It was not just the move itself, but the fact that it was so unexpected. After the race Räikkönen claimed that he saw Hamilton coming the whole time, but I’m not convinced. Räikkönen panicked and moved to the left as soon as Hamilton came up the inside.

It is interesting to note that Räikkönen’s instinct was to immediately move to the left to avoid a collision with Hamilton. Meanwhile, yet again, Hamilton saw an opportunity, pounced, and completed the move with 100% commitment. There is no hint that Hamilton will ever get intimidated by any situation. Most drivers who try that kind of move end up completely missing the chicane. But Hamilton negotiated it with perfection.

But, despite the impressive start and the flashy overtaking manoeuvres, Hamilton finished 2^nd. Alonso won the race because he put his foot down and kept it down for the entire race. Alonso’s second stint probably shows where he is more experienced. He just drove off from Hamilton, who seemingly fell asleep a bit. Alonso rightly saw that as the opportunity to tie the race up.

There is also the plain fact that Alonso was faster than Hamilton at Monza. Alonso qualified ahead of Hamilton despite having a heavier fuel load. Yet again, despite all of the hype surrounding Hamilton, there was somebody who was doing a better job (albeit not putting on a better show) than him.

As for Ferrari, it looks all over for them (on the racetrack at least). I think most people must have been expecting them to dominate at Monza, but there were well off the pace. The decision to put Räikkönen on a one-stop strategy was a clever risk that they almost pulled off. But Hamilton’s amazing overtaking manoeuvre put paid to that, and Ferrari had to make do with 3^rd.

And then there are the strange things going on with their cars. Massa got a suspension failure (although this may have been down to a first-lap collision), and Räikkönen had that strange (and scary) accident during free practice. (I would put a video here, but FOM have taken them all off YouTube. Great way to promote the sport, guys!)

BMW will be disappointed. I expected them to do better at Monza — to perhaps even be on the podium like they were last year. But both cars ended up being a minute behind the leader by the end of the race. The gap was less than half of that last time round.

Conversely, Honda will be pleased. They got into the final part of qualifying, which is just amazing given the season that they have had so far. And Button managed to bring the car home in 8^th, without any major retirements (apart from Massa) ahead of him. If only all those other circuits didn’t have those pesky corners!

All-in-all, Ferrari look as though they are out of contention. I did not expect that. On balance, McLaren have been the stronger team for most of the season, but Ferrari always looked like they were going to bounce back. But that bounce has always turned out to be a damp squib.

We did have an exciting four-way title fight, but now that is at best a three-way fight. And who would have expected Massa to be the first to drop out after the season he has had? Now Ferrari will have to throw their weight behind Räikkönen who has had plenty of off-days this season.

The saddest thing of all though is the fact that the World Championship could be won and lost in the World Motor Sport Council hearing on Thursday. After the exciting championship we have been given on the track, it would be terrible for it all to be taken away off the track.

You know, I didn’t think the FIA or the World Motor Sport Council had it in them, but they’ve managed it — they have actually made the right decision. Moreover, they have made a decision that has angered Ferrari! Blow me down!

While the media has been tempted to spin this as motorsport’s governing body letting McLaren off the hook, this misses an important point. There isn’t much evidence that McLaren have done anything wrong. The saga remains an issue concerning two rogue employees — Mike Coughlan of McLaren and Nigel Stepney of Ferrari.

There is no evidence that McLaren have benefited at all from the Ferrari documents. Indeed, there is not even evidence that the documents were ever in the possession of any McLaren employee except for Mike Coughlan. And while, as chief designer of McLaren, he was a pretty important figure, he can not have had the time to do much with the documents anyway.

Somebody yesterday said to me that it was a bit fishy that McLaren have come up with a fast car this year. But Mike Coughlan came into possession of the documents in late March — long after this year’s McLaren was designed; even after it first raced. And it is not as if it is unusual for McLaren to design a fast car. Indeed, it has been overdue, as they have experienced an unprecedented drought of success in recent years.

You only need to take a glance at the Ferrari and the McLaren to appreciate that they are not similar cars. The joke normally goes that if you gave all of the F1 cars the same paint job you would be unable to tell them apart. But the chassis of the Ferrari and the McLaren are very noticeably different to each other. Seemingly, nothing on the inside of the cars has rung alarm bells either.

There is the possibility that some Ferrari information was used in the development of the car as the season has gone on. But McLaren’s incredibly open offer to hand its car over to the FIA for inspection shows just how confident Ron Dennis was that his team had not broken the rules. The fact that the FIA have seemingly found no evidence of copied Ferrari parts vindicates this. Ron Dennis is a meticulous and honest man, and McLaren’s record is about as unblemished as they come.

Furthermore, a careful reading of the saga as it has drawn out has revealed that McLaren was never going to be the team where the Ferrari documents would have come in handy anyway. The most likely scenario is that Stepney approached Coughlan with a view to creating a “dream team” of engineers who would approach Honda.

Stepney in particular, and presumably Coughlan as well, were disillusioned with their employers for whatever reason. In Honda they would have seen the perfect opportunity: a team with a big budget and in desperate need to extra engineering and technical expertise.

They were looking for a boost in pay and status, and saw Honda as their best option. The Ferrari documents merely formed part of their arsenal. Honda are in the clear though, as they did not hire Stepney or Coughlan.

And Stepney’s involvement is important. GrandPrix.com has suggested that McLaren may have argued in court that if McLaren are to receive a penalty because of Mike Coughlan’s actions, then Ferrari ought to receive a similar penalty for Nigel Stepney’s actions. Given the lack of evidence of McLaren actually benefiting from the documents, this seems like a sound argument to me.

Given all of this information, it would have been pretty difficult for the WMSC to justify any draconian punishment for McLaren. Yes, Ferrari are livid. But this is typical of Ferrari. It is tough to think of a year in the past decade or so where Ferrari have not resorted to the rulebooks and the courts in an attempt to win the championship.

I will pluck just a few examples from the top of my head. The illegal bargeboards at Sepang in 1999: cleared by FIArrari. The sudden appeal against Michelin tyres towards the end of 2003, despite the fact that they had been used for almost two years: upheld by FIArrari. Last year’s claim at Monza that during qualifying Massa was being “impeded” by a Renault that was half a kilometre further up the track: supported by FIArrari.

Usually Ferrari’s whining succeeds because the FIA are Ferrari lackeys. This is why Jean Todt’s claim that Ferrari would have been punished if they were in the same situation is so laughable.

This latest saga is yet another example of Ferrari trying to win the championship through the many grey areas of the rulebook rather than the grey surface of the race track. What a breath of fresh air for the FIA to go against Ferrari’s wishes. It further demonstrates how little evidence there must have been of McLaren wrongdoing.

It is also worth remembering that McLaren have not gone completely unpunished. The FIA will be keeping an eye on them for the next two years to check for an evidence of the Ferrari information being used by McLaren. If McLaren step out of line, they face immediate exclusion from the championship. This is surely a fair verdict. As Ron Dennis said yesterday, “the punishment fits the crime.”

Keith Collantine has come to a similar conclusion to me, and makes a number of interesting points.

Ferrari claimed that the verdict creates a damaging precedent. They’re wrong. Imagine if McLaren had been docked points, even banned from the championship, simply because Coughlan was found to have Ferrari documents in his possession, without having used them.

We would then have a scenario where any disgruntled employee could hold their team to ransom by claiming they possessed similar confidential documents about another team.

In all legal systems, there has to be a dividing line between the companies’ responsibility and the individual’s.

Now for a bit of tin foil hat stuff. Where has this all come from? Many observers have noted how difficult they found it to believe that such well-regarded figures as Nigel Stepney and Mike Coughlan would get involved in this kind of behaviour. Whatever their motives, there is little doubt that it has not paid off, as their reputations are in tatters and they both face lengthy bans from motorsport.

There is, indeed, a real whiff of fish around this entire saga. Sidepodcast outlined a number of the aspects that just didn’t add up. A good point is made about the whistleblower who contacted Ferrari, said to be a worker at a Woking photocopying shop:

here’s a challenge. pretend you’re the copier guy, try and call the Italian team, see how many hoops you have to jump through to get in touch with them. then see if they even respond, let alone believe what you’re claiming.

i’m damn sure if it were me the first call i’d make would be to the police…or failing that, the Daily Mirror. this guy could be worth a fortune now!

final point. where is this mysterious tipster and why isn’t he talking? what a great story he would have. the tabloids would love it, especially on the weekend of the British GP. we’re not getting half the story here.

Here is something else that has got me scratching my head. It is this month’s ‘Friction Circle’ column in F1 Racing, written by Peter Windsor. He is a bit of an FIA / Ferrari lackey, but he is also a wise man whose word and experience are surely to be trusted. Here is what he said:

…espionage is alive and well in F1 and has been for the past couple of decades. I’m not talking about ‘cloned’ cars such as the Benetton–Ligier or the current Newey or Honda chassis. I’m talking deliberate industrial espionage — and I speak from the experience of having worked in F1 teams for a total of eight years during that period. I saw it with my own eyes — the evidence of senior employees sending drawings to destinations that could only be described as arch-rivals. It was blatant, obvious, but the F1 world just seemed to take it for granted.

…

A big thank you, then, to Ferrari, McLaren and Honda — and especially to the FIA — for giving this most recent matter the publicity and sincerity it deserves.

Now this is surprising to me, because almost every other experienced observer that I have read has written about how unbelievable they found the entire situation. Yes, they say, spying is normal. Taking photographs of rival cars is standard practice. But industrial espionage on this scale? “I’m shocked, just shocked!”

So is Peter Windsor right? Is industrial espionage the norm in F1? If it is, why has nobody said anything about it before? Why hasn’t Peter Windsor himself ever said anything about it?

Assuming Peter Windsor is right, this just adds on another question to the never-ending list. Why have Stepney and Coughlan been singled out, while similar behaviour has been “taken for granted” in the past?