Quote:
Race bans possible for McLaren
It is possible McLaren will be banned from a number of races should the World Motor Sport Council take a dim view of the 'lie-gate' scandal at the April 29th meeting.
Bernie Ecclestone told the Express newspaper that the serious charge of lying to stewards and bringing the sport into disrepute is worsened by McLaren's recent trouble over espionage.
"It is never good for anyone if you are back in court quickly for something similar," the F1 Chief Executive said.
The FIA body has essentially unlimited powers: from race bans, total exclusion from the championship, to draconian financial penalties, like the $100m fine levied against McLaren in 2007 for spying.
Ecclestone admitted that McLaren figures lying to the stewards to have Jarno Trulli penalised amounted to 'fraud'.
"There are many options open if the charge sticks and it would be a terrible thing if any team were banned from races. But it could happen," he said.
In 2005, BAR Honda was banned for two races for fielding a trick fuel tank.
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http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headline...08172645.shtml
If the FIA decides to ban McLaren for any of the races, when they're already just barely able to put enough teams on grid to meet the 20 car minimum, they're idiots. In fact, they're already idiots for asking a team questions about their race strategy and expecting truthful answers. I can't blame McLaren at all for lying... they're trying to win a championship, and I don't remember seeing "telling the truth" as one of the technical regulations for F1.
The FIA never should have questioned McLaren. They should have just looked at the facts, including the radio transmissions where McLaren told Hamilton to let Trulli by, and then corrected the stewards' mistake that penalized Trulli. Hamilton should have placed 4th. And all this drama should have never happened.
This just reeks of the FIA making an example out of McLaren just to show FOTA who's boss in F1.