NOVEMBER 9, 2007

Hill asks more questions

World Champion Damon Hill is again on the attack against the way in which the FIA handled the case against McLaren last summer. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph in London, Hill said that he would "like to understand how the Ferrari-Toyota case, which ended in court, did not lead to the same outcome as the Ferrari-McLaren case?

World Champion Damon Hill is again on the attack against the way in which the FIA handled the case against McLaren last summer. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph in London, Hill said that he would like to understand how the Ferrari-Toyota case, which ended in court, did not lead to the same outcome as the Ferrari-McLaren case? Why was there no punishment of the team? Hill said. There was an uncomfortable feeling that there was something more to the McLaren outcome than the issue being investigated. The way that justice was meted out raised some questions about the way the FIA handle these breaches. If breaches occur then those things should be investigated and dealt with sensibly and appropriately. But in that case there were lots of questions about what really happened that went unanswered.

The FIA says that it had no involvement in the Ferrari-Toyota case because it received no complaint from the Italian team and because the matter was dealt with the in the civil courts.

Hill went on to ask why Ferrari was only given "a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again after winning the first race with a device that was illegal? This brings about a lot of the problems relating to justice and consistency. In this country we are quite sophisticated sport and political spectators. If things don't stack up, and continue to fly in the face of what we regard as being just and fair, then the danger is people will just walk away. It's a problem that has existed for a long time in this sport, not knowing whether to believe things or not. I'm not a lone voice here. There are a lot of people who love this sport and have got a lot out of it, who want it to be a healthy sport and to attract people to it. When there are episodes like we had in the last season our hearts sink because we think that they're not doing it any good. Last season was the best in F1 for a long time, most notably because there were four drivers who could have been World Champion. That brought about a massive amount of interest in the sport for the right reasons. It did not need any more controversy or sideshows."