AUGUST 23, 2010
Mosley says Ferrari drivers should lose points
Former FIA president Max Mosley has told a German newspaper that Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa should lose the points they scored in the German Grand Prix last month, when Ferrari was adjudged to have flouted F1's ban on team orders.
Former FIA president Max Mosley has told a German newspaper that Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa should lose the points they scored in the German Grand Prix last month, when Ferrari was adjudged to have flouted F1's ban on team orders.
Ferrari has already been fined $100,000 in the aftermath of the breach and faces a World Motor Sport Council hearing on September 8, after which further sanctions could be imposed.
Many F1 figures believe that the ban on team orders, ironically introduced due to Ferrari's actions at the 2002 Austrian GP under current FIA president Jean Todt's stewardship, should be lifted as policing it effectively is widely considered to be impossible.
Mosley, however, told Welt Am Sonntag, that for the sake of racing's fans, it is important that a team orders ban remains.
"Most teams are in favour of the ban being lifted," he said, "But if one wants to fulfil the needs of the audience, one must maintain it. Both cars and both drivers should lose the points they achieved in the German Grand Prix. I will not make any recommendation but on the facts at the moment there should have been some sporting sanction and not only a fine."
Such action would have a dramatic impact on Fernando Alonso's world championship challenge. If Alonso lost his 25 points for the German victory he would drop from his current 141 points to 116, with current championship leader Mark Webber on 161. If, at the same time, the FIA elected to re-classify the Hockenheim result, promoting third-placed Vettel to the victory and elevating everyone beneath him, the drivers' championship would now read 1), Webber, 165; 2) Hamilton, 163; 3) Vettel, 161; 4) Button 152; 5) Alonso, 116. Massa's total would drop to 79, putting him behind Nico Rosberg and Robert Kubica in the championship standings.
In the constructors' championship, such an action would increase Red Bull's narrow lead, giving the team 326 points to McLaren's 315, with Ferrari dropping to 195 in third place.