Απο ενα φορουμ φιλων της BMW-Sauber
The FIA conspirancy?
By Jaime M. - September 13 2006
I'm just going to expose some facts that everyone can interpretate as they want. In fact I'm not really sure of this possible conspirancy, in my opinion its more probable that it's just a small favouritism. But let yourself judge.
At the last GP at Monza many controversy facts have arised, most notably with Alonso's penalization for suposedly blocking Massa in the 3rd session of qualifying, that relagated him to the 10th starting position.
But this has not been the only strange thing that has happened in Italy and the rest of the season. To begin from this last race, the Monza track was resurfaced in many sections, hence changing the tyre requirements, but only Bridgestone knew about it, Michelin was not imformed until they tested there the week before the GP. This would not have been more than an anectdote if it was in another country, but it was in Italy, the homeland of Ferrari, so it looks like a small aid to Ferrari and the other Bridgestone teams. Still this situation is not very serious at all.
But in this same GP Renault and Michelin have discovered that after the qualifying a Bridgestone mechanic dressed with gass mask and special clothes was sprying the tyres with 'illegal' chemical products, suposedly in order to make them harder, so they last more in the race. This was recorded with various photographies, but FIA has not allowed them to be shown to the press, even threatening Renault to exclude them of F1 in 2007 if the publicaly show them.
And the 3rd thing that hapened was Alonso's penalty. There has been lots of talks about it, with most of the media, even the Italian, talking about favouritism, injustified, in order to make easier the last championship for Schumacher. I have had no access to the telemetry, but those who have say that there was noblocking from Alonso, and the only place where Massa lost time, the Parabolica, was due to a driver's mistake. And from what I've seen in the on-board camera Massa is about 1 second behind Alonso, and is never able to really get close to him, at least not as much as to say that it killed his lap. Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcUGC_GoVnc
It looks like there was no blocking, does it?...
Even Bernie Ecclestone admitted that it was a farce!.Read it here: http://www.f1editorial.com/index.php?pa ... cleID=3232
And on that same Q3 Alonso had a run off (the one which caused his tyre puncture) after hard braking in the turn one in order to avoid crashing with Schumi, because the german was going very slow and blocking the spaniard.
Some can say that this penalty didn't affect the final result as Alonso's engine blew up, but probably that problem would have not appeared if he had started 5 postions in front, as he would have had no need to use as much top revolutions in order to overtake and close the gap to front runners. Who knows...
But going backwards in the time, lets start with the flexi-wings controversy, were Ferrari did use 'a-legal' wings, that were not totally banned until Canada, which represents half season (it seems a big advantage, doesn't it?).
Then after that the lenticular alloys, used for both improving the brake refrigeration and aerodinamics, do not follow at least one of the rules refering to allows materials, aerodinamics, or 'parc ferme' changes. You can find it in any F1 website more deeply.
And what about the mass damper? Probably it was really illegal, but the problem is on the way it was banned. It was being used since the end of 2005 and the FIA knew it, but did nothing until the German GP, just when Ferrari were improving their pace and getting closer in the Championship. Coincidence?
Even the marshalls of the German GP said it was legal, but FIA denied it, so finally Renault could not run it anymore, and lost pace, as much as 1 or 2 thenths of second per lap.
On the driver's side one controversial point is the Turkey race start, where Michael changed his trajectory 3 times, finally causing Alonso to almost collide and Fisi to spin, when the rules state that no more than one trajectory change can be done during the start in order to defend the position. Charlie Whiting personally talked with Alonso, and at first he said his complain was right, but then he did nothing to penalise Schumi.
And to end, what about Hungary, when he had a fight with both De la Rosa and Heidfeld. In the fight for second place with the spaniard, he jumped the chicane but didn't let pass when he should have done, because he was going much slower and had lost the position. Finally Pedro passed him, and Heidfeld got closer to Michael, so they had another fight, that finally ended in Nick passing him with a damaged axe, and Schumi retiring after colliding in a 'kamizake-like' move.
When the drivers (all the rest) asked FIA why was Schumi not penalised for both manouvres, specially jumping the chicane, they got a surprising answer 'you can now jump the chicanes'! And then asked again 'how many times?' and the FIA member said 'not too many'! wow, so now it seems that rules have changed, because till that day, if a driver jumped the chicane he had to let the other car pass him. So the rules changed in order that Schumacher was not penalized.
So it seems that the Championship is getting easier for Ferrari and harder for Renault and Alonso due to this actions.
Each one can believe the favouritism or not, but you have to admit that its a little bit suspicious at least, even more because this is not the first year that this happens...
