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Matter of millimeters Ferrari affair a black eye to Formula One
Posted: Tuesday October 19, 1999 04:05 PM
Mika Hakkinen was declared champion -- then declared it was no way to be crowned Formula one king for a second straight year. Now we have tales of conspiracy which make the sorry Ferrari failure at once captivating and sordid. McLaren's Finnish flyer finished third in Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix behind Ferrari duo Eddie Irvine and Michael Schumacher, who made the most courageous of comebacks after injury. Irvine, coaxed home by his German teammate, had the overall points lead with just the Japanese Grand Prix remaining. Ferrari's first world championship in two decades surely beckoned. But some three hours after the checkered flag had been dropped on Irvine's victory, the Ferrari car was deemed to be illegal -- something to do with oversized deflector panels. Both Irvine and Schumacher were disqualified. Hakkinen was awarded the win and with it the world title. He has an unassailable lead heading to Japan at the end of this month. Stunned Ferrari team members immediately appealed. The International Automobile Federation will likely hear the appeal on Friday (October 22) in Paris and are expected to reveal their ruling the next day. Only then will Hakkinen discover if he is indeed the world champion for another year. Only then will Irvine find out if his title hopes have, without question, been ripped from his grasp. The experts agree, however, that Ferrari's appeal is doomed to be thrown out, leaving many onlookers with a bad taste in their mouths over a wholly unsatisfactory end to this year's F1 title race. Even one of the men at the very heart of this unpleasant chapter, the very man who will benefit most from this disqualification, isn't best pleased -- although of course he'll doubtless get over it rather quickly with trophy in hand. Yes, Hakkinen was most magnanimous to come out and say: "This isn't how the title should be decided. This is not the way. They won the race fair and square on the track." If only the appeals council could see it that way and leave us with a nerve-jangling title decider in Japan. But I fear not. The objectionable deflector panels were a mere 10 millimeters out of line with the regulations. Not enough to allow Ferrari to be so dominant in Malaysia -- and certainly not, as the Jordan team's chief of aerodynamics pointed out, enough of a difference to constitute cheating and put an entire season at risk. If Ferrari wanted to cheat, they could do it in much more subversive and conclusive fashion. This is so miniscule as not to matter. And yet it does -- well, at the Malaysian Grand Prix at least. You see, Flavio Briatore, president of engine maker Supertec and former manager of the Benetton F1 team, has a conspiracy theory. "Ferrari have used those deflector penels since [the European Grand Prix at] Nurburgring," he said. "I'm sure McLaren knew all about them. All Formula One teams have their informers. "At Sepang [venue for the Malaysian GP] McLaren held a joker and they played it after they saw Hakkinen finished behind Irvine and Schumacher. You can be certain that if the Finn had won, McLaren would not have made any complaint. "It happened to me when I was at Benetton. If we found out about the secrets of other teams we'd keep them in the bank and bring them out into the open at the right moment." The timing was apparently right for McLaren last Sunday -- but it will remain an ill-timed blow to the sport of Formula One for many months to come. CNN/SI's Phil Jones co-hosts WORLD SPORT, the international sports show that airs live daily on CNN/SI and CNN International. His columns appear regularly on CNNSI.com.
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