OCTOBER 24, 2007

Damon attacks again

Damon Hill has gone on to the attack against the stewards' decision in Brazil, telling Radio 5 Live that he does not understand the decision.

Damon Hill has gone on to the attack against the stewards' decision in Brazil, telling Radio 5 Live that he does not understand the decision.

"Rules are rules," Damon said. "The FIA have found some teams are in breach of the regulations. If this had been something McLaren had done during the season, do you think the FIA would have insisted that their cars were legal or illegal? I think on past performance they're prepared to persecute McLaren for any infringement that they've made this season."

Hill is assuming in his statement that the decision of the stewards was influenced by the FIA, which is rather a dangerous claim as the federation makes much of the independence of the stewards. However Hill does have a point.

"It does get quite difficult to see where the consistency lies because if you go back to the beginning of the season, McLaren's argument is that Ferrari won the very first race using a device which was later found to be illegal by the FIA. They removed it but the result stood. It's very unsettling to have this appeal, but there is so much at stake and the FIA have to find somehow a way of being consistent. I can see how a couple of degrees fuel temperature can be regarded as being so negligible that it wouldn't make any difference but we're talking about such tiny differences all the time in Formula 1, there has to be a line where you're one side or the other.

"You have to say there's no doubt there does sometimes seem to be one rule for Ferrari and another for everyone else."