A dramatic finale wasn’t enough to conclude the 2007 Formula 1 season. Instead, another controversy had to reveal itself at the end of an already controversial season.
McLaren has filed an appeal questioning the stewards’ decision not to exclude the drivers of Williams and BMW-Sauber in the final results of the Brazilian GP after a report indicated that the temperatures of the fuel used by both Williams and BMW-Sauber might have been below the specified levels. It was revealed by the Interlagos stewards that the report of the irregularities could not be conclusively proven.
Had the stewards excluded the drivers of the implicated teams, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton would have been promoted into fourth place which would allow the rookie to win the world title by default.
McLaren’s Norbert Haug iterated however that the team’s intention is not about trying to win the title by default. Rather it is only in their interest to “obtain clarification of the rules and that is in the interest of all teams”.
In theory, the World Driver’s Title may switch hands in favor of Lewis Hamilton. The likelihood of that happening is next to impossible.
This is because when a similar issue happened back in 1995, both Michael Schumacher’s and David Coulthard’s disqualification from the race when the fuel irregularities were discovered were overturned. Part of the reason for debunking the ruling was because it wasn’t clear if the drivers in question did gain an advantage.
If one takes into consideration the gravity of the offense, fuel experts argue that cool fuel may add approximately two seconds worth of advantage throughout the duration of the whole race.
In a more practical perspective however, the two seconds advantage spread out in 71 laps make the time gained by the driver negligible in a ‘per-lap’ basis assuming that the teams deliberately used cooler fuels in their cars since the start of the race.
Given the circumstances in the Brazilian GP, assuming that Rosberg, Kubica and Heidfeld did gain two seconds worth of advantage, deducting two seconds from their overall time means that they would still end up ahead of Hamilton.
Therefore, exclusion of the implicated drivers and radically interfering with the championship standings would do more harm than good considering how little cooler fuels affect the individual lap-times of the driver. This is why penalizing the teams rather than the driver becomes the most logical and fair action if ever the teams were truly guilty.
The outcome therefore of the case will mostly be similar to the spy saga where only the team was penalized. If both McLaren drivers were not expelled from the championship despite the incriminating evidence of leaked confidential documents from a rival team, it will make absolutely no sense to exclude Rosberg, Kubica, and Heidfeld for a relatively lesser offense.
In addition, McLaren itself benefited from a very lenient penalty from the Stewards. During Friday practice, McLaren breached the regulations by supplying Lewis Hamilton with more than one set of wet weather tires. When a similar situation arose in 2005, half a second was added to Ralf Schumacher’s qualifying lap time. Lewis Hamilton did not incur such penalty and the stewards instead fined McLaren $21,000.
Based from the turn of events, it becomes clear that the governing body does not want to interfere with the championship battle as much as possible for the sake of public interest. Now that the title has been won in the most dramatic and unpredictable fashion, it is highly unlikely that the FIA will take a course of action that will alter the final championship tally based on a technicality.
