The agents acting on behalf of key sponsors have approached the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One Management company to impress upon them the gravity of the situation if McLaren are suspended by the FIA’s world council at a hearing in Paris next Wednesday.
McLaren have been summoned by the sport’s ruling body to answer five charges that they lied to race stewards in Australia and Malaysia – cheating Toyota out of third place – and procured world champion Lewis Hamilton into supporting that deception. The team have already been disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix and stripped of the points they won in that race, while sporting director Dave Ryan, on whom all blame was apportioned, has been sacked.
A source close to one of McLaren’s key sponsors said: “I can say that if a disproportionately large penalty were given to McLaren on April 29 then the sponsor that I am associated with might leave. But the punishment must fit the crime. If there is an irrefutable case of corporate deception then fair enough.”
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“I think we all know the subtext here; the FIA wanted to oust Ron Dennis. I believe the governing body have allowed this situation to escalate and it is doing no one any good – not McLaren, not the FIA and certainly not the sport. Apart from anything else, it is dissuading other potential sponsors from entering Formula One.”
A two-race suspension similar to the one handed to BAR in 2005 could mean McLaren being ruled out of the Barcelona and Monaco grands prix. Spain is a key market for Banco de Santander, one of McLaren-Mercedes’ major sponsors, while Monaco is the most important race of the season from a sponsor’s perspective. A four-race suspension would include the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on June 21.
If McLaren are found guilty under Article 151c, it would be the second time in three years that they have been found guilty of bringing the sport into disrepute. The last time they were up before the world council, over the Ferrari-Spygate affair in 2007, they were handed a $100 million fine, the largest in sporting history. Telegraph.co.uk
However, closer to the seat of motor racing power, there is still talk of a fine and an automatic suspension from two or even three races, which, for what was termed “repeatedly lying to the referee”, would exclude McLaren from competing at the grands prix in Catalunya (Spanish), Monaco and, possibly, Istanbul. This could have a big knock-on effect for a team who are still reeling from the trauma of the scandal, with suggestions that key sponsors could walk away because McLaren would be in breach of contract.
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More important for fans of Hamilton is that a two or three-race ban would effectively end his chances of defending the World Championship, having scored only four points in two races at the wheel of an uncompetitive car after he was stripped of his points from the Australian Grand Prix.
The WMSC hearing, at which members of the council will cross-examine representatives from McLaren, is unlikely to focus expressly on Dennis’s role in the affair. However, the WMSC will want to establish who said what to whom as matters unfolded after Australia and try to develop a clear understanding of the sequence of events that led to Hamilton and Ryan lying twice to the stewards. Whether or not the spotlight falls on Dennis will depend on McLaren’s answers to these points. Times Online
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