McLaren Mercedes, the leading team in the Formula One world championship, was fined $100 million on Thursday and excluded from the constructors’ championship this season in the spying scandal that has plagued the sport all season. Brad Spurgeon, InternationalHeraldTribune
The McLaren Formula One team, whose drivers lead the championship, was kicked out of this year’s constructors’ category and fined $100 million today for spying on its closest competitor Ferrari.
The punishment was confirmed by Richard Woods, spokesman for the sport’s ruling body, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, after a 10-hour hearing in Paris. Team drivers Lewis Hamilton, a rookie, and two-time champion Fernando Alonso will retain their points in the drivers’ championship. Freep.com
McLaren have escaped a disastrous end to their promising season but were dramatically thrown out of the constructors’ championship and given a hefty fine by the International Motoring Federation (FIA) over their role in the ‘spygate’ affair.
The FIA convened a World Motor Sport Council meeting here Thursday to pore over allegations that McLaren, this season’s pacesetters in both the drivers and constructors’ competitions, benefited from a leaked 780-page dossier of secret Ferrari technical information. TurkishPress.com
The punishment was by far the harshest in the 57-year history of the sport.
The federation said that it had, stripped Vodafone McLaren Mercedes of all constructors points in the 2007 Formula One World Championship and that the team could not score any points for the remainder of the season. It added in a statement that the team would not receive any of the sport’s commercial rights money this season either.
The team may continue to race in the series, however, and its two drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, who lead the series, will keep their points and may continue to fight for the drivers’ title. BRAD SPURGEON, NewYorkTimes
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