The 2007 Formula 1 World Championship seemed to be a season that never ends. Even the World Driver’s Title couldn’t be confirmed after the last race in Brazil. As it happened, the Williams-Toyota and BMW-Sauber teams were implicated in a ‘cool fuel’ issue during the race. Both teams could have been disqualified by the stewards. But after hours of deliberation, no penalty was given. As a result, the race classification remained and Raikkonen was considered 2007 Formula 1 World Champion.
McLaren however lodged an appeal against the decision. According to McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh, the appeal was made for the sake of clarification of the rules rather than a last ditch attempt to give Lewis Hamilton the driver’s title. The consequence of a successful appeal however would have meant that Hamilton could be reclassified to fourth place in the Brazilian GP and therefore earn enough points to be World Champion. The appeal was taken into consideration the fate of the World Championship was once again up in the air.
After the hearing however, the McLaren appeal was deemed inadmissible by the FIA court of appeal. They said in a statement:
"Having heard the explanations of both parties and having examined the various documents and other evidence, the Court decided that the appeal lodged by Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is inadmissible,"
The aftermath of the whole ordeal however still remains despite the very swift decision of the court to end the matter. Regardless of Whitmarsh’s insistence of the team’s motives for lodging an appeal, the Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes Formula 1 team was still heavily criticized for trying to win the driver’s title in any way possible.
In the days leading up to the hearing, three-time Formula 1 Champion Niki Lauda called the appeal as “abstruse”. In addition, the German newspaper Bild-Zeitung stated “If McLaren succeed, they will only deserve one title: Worst Losers of 2007.”
At the time of the hearing, the negative sentiments questioning the motives for lodging the appeal seemed to be confirmed when McLaren’s lawyer Ian Mill called for the court to disqualify the cars of Williams-Toyota and BMW-Sauber and reclassify Lewis Hamilton. Mill said “The principle is clear - if there was a performance enhancement, there was a breach and there has to be a disqualification”. The McLaren lawyer proceeded by saying “Invariably, whenever there has been a disqualification, there has been a reclassification.”
With McLaren’s appeal officially debunked due to lack of evidence that the implicated teams did in fact breach the rules, a new set of criticisms plagued the team once again. Ferrari’s Lawyer Nigel Tozzi accused McLaren of “naked opportunism”. Peter Sauber on the other hand stated that Ian Mill's strategy was clearly to establish the disqualification of Rosberg, Kubica and Heidfeld.
It seems that the 2007 season is still brewing rivalries even a month after the season finale. Unfortunately, more is yet to come with the new Spy Saga concerning McLaren and Renault that ultimately sums up a season that never ends. But at the very least, the sport now has the confirmed champion in Kimi Raikkonen.
