McLaren appeal

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McLaren lawyer seeks title for Hamilton A lawyer for McLaren called on Thursday for Lewis Hamilton to be handed the points that would make the Briton, and not Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, this year's Formula One world champion. Barrister Ian Mill told an FIA international appeal court hearing that the BMW Sauber and Williams cars that finished ahead of Hamilton in last month's season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix broke the rules on fuel temperature and gained an advantage from the breach. If the three drivers involved are disqualified, Hamilton could move up from seventh in the race to fourth - handing the 22-year-old British rookie the points needed to overhaul Raikkonen. However, the stewards do not have to move Hamilton up the race order and the driver has said he wanted to win the title on the track and not in a courtroom. Finland's Raikkonen beat Hamilton by a single point at the end of the 17 race season. "The principle is clear," said Mill. "If there was a breach, it was performance-enhancing. The sanction, I'm afraid, has to be disqualification." The lawyer urged the four independent judges, who are expected to publish a judgment on Friday, not to be influenced by the fact that the title could be at stake. "I ask you to address this as though it was any team at any stage of the season," he said. "Whenever in the past there has been a disqualification, there has been a re-classification... All we ask you to do is what normally happens." The appeal, made on behalf of McLaren by the British governing body, was against a stewards' decision not to sanction BMW Sauber and Williams at Interlagos despite readings suggesting their fuel was cooler than the rules allow. The stewards ruled that there were "considerable discrepancies" in the data. McLaren were fined $100 million and stripped of all their constructors' points in September in a spying controversy involving Ferrari. The governing body ruled at that time, however, that the McLaren drivers should keep their points because of an amnesty offered to them if they provided evidence, despite strong arguments against them remaining in the championship. Mill used that same argument against McLaren's rivals. "The driver may be entirely innocent...but he has the benefit of the infringing car," he said. "It must be right that if the team is disqualified, the driver loses the points as well. In the other case, the drivers were offered immunity if they assisted the FIA." Lawyers for the other teams involved had yet to present their cases. The opening hour of the hearing was devoted to the issue of whether the appeal was admissible, with the judges from the United States, Greece, Portugal and Czech Republic still to rule on that.

A new low for McLaren! Weeks ago they mentioned that in choosing to appeal, they had no intention of claiming the WDC and now this Verdict is expected on Friday.

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"The driver may be entirely innocent...but he has the benefit of the infringing car," he said. "It must be right that if the team is disqualified, the driver loses the points as well. In the other case, the drivers were offered immunity if they assisted the FIA."

LOL, that's completetly pathetic.

[McLaren4eVa]

Well as a McLaren fan i do admit that this is a bit pathetic, i do however hope that they win it simply because i'm going to be 20 pounds out of pocket because of a bet i made after the chineses gp. This is not a case in which the governing body's stern hand should be tested on. The Renault spycase is, if the FIA fail to punish Renault then they would recieve a tremendous amount of criticism.

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^Sig dimensions should be 600 x 200 MAX
I really do not get McLaren! Here's the latest:

The McLaren team insisted they are not seeking to win the drivers' championship in the courtroom following the appeal hearing in London on Thursday. If McLaren's appeal is successful, it could mean Lewis Hamilton would gain enough points to be crowned champion, nearly a month after Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen celebrated the title at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Ferrari's lawyer Nigel Tozzi was highly critical of McLaren during the hearing, saying comments from the team's F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh that they are only seeking clarification of the rules were of "shameless hypocrites devoid of any integrity". McLaren's lawyer Ian Mill had earlier called for BMW's and Williams' drivers to be disqualified from the Brazilian race, thus promoting Hamilton to fourth, which would give him enough points to take the title. "The principle is clear," said Mill. "If there was a breach, it was performance-enhancing. The sanction, I'm afraid, has to be disqualification." Whitmarsh, however, said after the hearing that their argument was purely based on precedents of disqualifications for infringements to the technical regulations in the past 20 years. He added that getting their rivals disqualified was not their ultimate goal. "At today's hearing all parties had the opportunity to present evidence and make arguments based on their respective perception of the facts," Whitmarsh said. "It now lies with the FIA International Court of Appeal to deliberate and issue a decision. "As I made clear prior to the appeal, the team was seeking to clarify the regulatory uncertainty that has arisen from a decision of the FIA Stewards at the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix and not to win the Driver's World Championship. "Our lawyer's argument that an appropriate penalty would be a disqualification of the cars is based on the fact that this is ordinarily what has occurred during the last 20 years in Formula One when there was a breach of a technical regulation during a race. "Consequently whilst this was the only appropriate argument from a legal point of view, it's not our ultimate goal in respect of today's hearing." A decision by the four judges will be announced on Friday.

[saadie]

after the humiliation mclaren faced during last season .... this appeal seems like desperation .. they should just STFU and grow the fuck up ...

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Kimi Raikkonen is officially the 2007 World Champion! Justice is served

After a month of preparation from all sides involved - the hearing in London and a subsequent day of deliberation - the FIA International Court of Appeal has thrown out McLaren’s appeal against the findings of the stewards’ at the season finale in Brazil. The stewards’ decision not to exclude Williams Toyota and BMW Sauber from the Interlagos race has not been considered and therefore the race results stand. The following is a press release issued by the FIA in which they announce the findings and confirm that Kimi Raikkonen is in fact the 2007 Formula One World Champion. The FIA International Court of Appeal met in London on Thursday, November 15, 2007, to examine an appeal lodged by the Motor Sports Association (MSA) on behalf of its licence-holder Vodafone McLaren Mercedes against the decision (document 41) of the Panel of the Stewards of the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix dated 21 October 2007 and counting towards the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship. Following a report from the Technical Delegate indicating that the temperature of fuel pumped into the cars N°9 - Nick Heidfeld, N°10 - Robert Kubica, N°16 - Nico Rosberg and N°17 - Kazuki Nakajima, was more than 10 degrees centigrade below ambient temperature, the Stewards of the Meeting met to consider whether a penalty should be imposed. Having heard the evidence they decided not to impose a penalty as they had sufficient doubt as to both the temperature of the fuel on board the car and to the true ambient temperature. Having heard the explanations of both parties and having examined the various documents and other evidence, the Court decided that the appeal lodged by Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is inadmissible. The International Court of Appeal was presided over by Mr Jan STOVICEK (Czech Republic), elected President, and composed of Mr John CASSIDY (United States), Mr Vassilis KOUSSIS (Greece) and Mr José MACEDO e CUNHA (Portugal).

[saadie]

^^ sweet news .... 8)

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Seriously he should have been happy that him and Alonso wasn't disqualify with the team.

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Originally Posted by McLaren4eVa The Renault spycase is, if the FIA fail to punish Renault then they would recieve a tremendous amount of criticism.

Imo, that case is completely different to Stepneygate.