All down to the set up?

By Catfish
August 1 2006

Well if someone had openly suggested after the Monaco Grand Prix that we would be sitting here after Hockenheim staring down the barrel of yet another Schumacher world title many would have questioned their sanity.

ALL DOWN TO THE SET UP?

Well if someone had openly suggested after the Monaco Grand Prix that we would be sitting here after Hockenheim staring down the barrel of yet another Schumacher world title many would have questioned their sanity. Yet here we are with exactly that in prospect thanks largely to a combination of a highly questionable FIA decision on mass dampers and the sudden inability of Michelin to provide a tyre that can last for half race distance let alone the entire duration. In my opinion the whole situation is deeply suspicious in the same way that the retrospective banning of McLaren’s innovative brake steer system in ‘98, the bargeboard saga of ‘99 or last ditch changes to the tyre regulations in ‘03 left an unsavoury odour.

In a sport which strives to present a clinically clean professional image and where so much money is involved it is laughable that it’s governing body can openly appear to be so unprofessional. It is bad enough that a damper system which had been perfectly legal for a season and a half can mysteriously become illicit just when the drivers championship was looking to be as good as over. But when you add the fact that the FIA has in effect appealed against it’s own stewards to reinstate a ban which it overturned only days previously it starts to look more sinister. To make it even worse it is not going to make a final decision until August 22nd at the earliest and it could even be as late as September according to some sources. It isn’t possible to imagine this level of amateurish indecision occurring in any other sport - even darts, tiddlywinks or curling!! Can you imagine the uproar, for example, if the Football Association suddenly banned the offside rule halfway through the season, reinstated it, appealed against it’s own stewards and then announced that a final decision would not be made for two months. It simply wouldn’t happen in any other organised sport let alone one as high profile as Formula One.

Coming as it does when both championships were looking pretty safe for Renault and considering some similarly timed and equally questionable decisions by the FIA in past seasons it is hardly surprising that many people are crying foul over this latest anomaly. Particularly when once again the main beneficiary is none other than Mr Schumacher and Ferrari. Anyone who remembers the barge board saga of ‘99 or the banning of McLaren’s use of Berylium in some engine parts in ‘01, which effectively ruined their season, could not be blamed for smelling a Big Red Rat once again.

It does make the more cynical amongst us wonder if we could be looking at a ‘set up’ of an altogether different nature than those related to ride height, front wing or brake balance that we are more used to hearing about in motorsport. Think about it - ‘Schumacher retires as World Champion to take a management role at Ferrari’ would make a perfect end to a brilliant but controversial career and ‘Kimi replaces Schumi as Ferrari Number One’ the icing on the cake. Sylvester Stallone couldn’t have written a better film script if he’d been given ten years to do it and it would also make the current ‘driver silly season’ not look so silly after all...