Aug 6, 2007

McLaren Points Blame at Ferrari

This has been a year for cheating in motorsport. While that may seem much like saying that this has been a year for the sky to be blue, the difference is that this year, a lot of people have been caught, and some even penalized. In both NASCAR and Formula One, there have been accusations of cheating this season and, to the great amazement of many, some sanctions have been levied against those who were judged to have cheated. Of course in racing, the punishment dished out for cheating is relative -- but at least there is something being done about it.

The most amusing cheating scandal has involved Ferrari and McLaren, two Formula One powerhouses. McLaren, which had been accused of stealing Ferrari secret documents to aid its racing efforts, took a very interesting tack in defending itself. Adhering to the adage that the best defense is a good offense, McLaren chief Ron Dennis made the bold assertion that it only obtained the Ferrari documents -- more than 700 pages of them -- so that it could "out" Ferrari for cheating. In what has become an open letter, Dennis claimed that Ferrari won the Australian Grand Prix with a car that had illegal modifications, something he discovered via the purloined documents. Dennis said he was miffed by the press reports coming from Italy that trumpeted Ferrari's assertion that McLaren used the documents to gain an unfair racing advantage.

Good heavens! How could anyone come to that conclusion? Just because secret race car plans are somehow transmitted to a high-ranking member of a rival Formula One team, how could a person even imagine that the team that received the documents would use them to their advantage? Oh, come on! That could never happen. Undoubtedly, McLaren was simply looking for evidence that Ferrari had cheated so that it could help the FIA, the Formula One sanctioning body, to police itself. And if you believe that, we have some oceanfront property in Nevada that you should consider buying from us. Cheap.

Dennis' bald-faced con might actually carry some weight with the FIA because that group is notoriously reluctant to rock the boat, especially with big-money teams like McLaren. Just how this plays out will be fascinating. Stay tuned because this story isn't over.