Part of the Planet F1 editorial:
McLaren would have indeed looked hypocrites if they had won the case and then called for Hamilton to be installed as World Champion, but as it is they needn't worry.
What was on trial here was not actually BMW or Williams, but the decision-making process after grands prix. It was the stewards. The fact that the FIA are now trying to shove this under the carpet with the most derisorily simple of statements (as of 9pm Friday 16th November) sucks.
What all the teams on the grid are agreed on - including Ferrari - is that the current system doesn't work and dodging the issue yet again doesn't help anybody. McLaren had a legitimate gripe about the way the last race of the season was adjudicated, even though it was in no-one's real interests to depose Kimi Raikkonen as champ.
What F1 might have got out of it is an end to post-race fiascos like this and doing nothing just perpetuates it. What Max Mosleyhas also been banging on about for years is reducing the cost of F1, yet the FIA have let the teams hire the most expensive barristers known to man, prepare legals cases, only to tell them that there shouldn't have been an appeal in the first place.
What is bringing F1 into disrepute isn't the teams spying on each other, it's the inability of the governing body to run its own sport.
FIA is not a very good organization. Favoritism is part of their game. Remember they outlawed v6 turbo when no one can beat Honda during the 80's? How about Beneton was caught cheating after the 1994 F1 season? From other series, they disallowed Rotory engine after Mazda won the championship for the first time in how many years? And banned Toyota for a year after caught cheating?
McLaren's $100 million fine was based on "ethics" when Ferrari's design print was found no where on the their cars, and now it will really be interesting to see how FIA will react to Renault's scandal for having McLaren's design prints on floppy discs. After all, both cases are very much the same if you base it on "ethics."
Unfortunatly for McLaren, F1 is their game, and F1 can't loose them as a participating competitor. It would be a shame if McLaren decides to pull out of F1, Ferreri will win every year.
