Ferrari has avoided further punishment for its illegal actions during the Grosser Preis Santander von Deutschland, according to FIA's World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) that was held in Paris.An official statement by the FIA follows.
"On 25 July 2010, at the Grand Prix of Germany, the Stewards of the meeting found an infringement by the Scuderia Ferrari to the prohibition of team orders interfering with a race result and then decided to impose a fine of $100,000 and to forward the dossier to the World Motor Sport Council for further consideration.
The Judging Body of the World Motor Sport Council held an extraordinary hearing in Paris on 8 September 2010 to examine this matter.
After an in depth analysis of all reports, statements and documents submitted, the Judging Body has decided to confirm the Stewards’ decision of a $100,000 fine for infringing article 39.1 of the Sporting Regulations and to impose the payment of the costs incurred by the FIA.
The Judging Body has also acknowledged that article 39.1 of the Sporting Regulations should be reviewed and has decided to refer this question to the Formula One Sporting Working Group."
As it is already known, on lap 49 at Hockenheim, Ferrari driver Felipe Massa slowed his pace and gave the lead of the race to team-mate and title contender Fernando Alonso after receiving a radio order from his engineer Rob Smedley:
"Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?"
After the race the team was fined $100,000 by the stewards for breaching the sporting code which bans team orders and forbids teams bringing the sport into disrepute. Yet there was no race result consequence for noone of Ferrari's drivers and Alonso maintained his victorious position.
After the German Grand Prix team boss Stefano Domenicali, who was present in Paris for the hearing, insisted the radio communications were purely informative and not instructive.
"We gave information to Felipe about what was the situation, because we have already seen in the past that certain situations could not give the best result to the team. That was the information we wanted to give and we leave the drivers to understand and take notice of it in order to make sure the team, in terms of the global results, gets the best."
Ex-FIA president Max Mosley, who is currently a significant adverse of Ferrari, and the majority of F1 World insisted that Ferrari deserved an additional sporting sanction. But in fact it appears that FIA's president Jean Todt, has instead ordered a review of the regulations, which is an indication that the team orders ban will be amended or scrapped altogether.
Jean Todt who had a direct involvement during the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix scandal when he and Ross Brown ordered Rubens Barrichello to leave Michael Schumacher make a pass to victory, insisted on a video interview on the BBC website that there was a lack of evidence for dooming Ferrari a further penalty.
"Before you say you're guilty, you need to be able to prove that you're guilty. I mean everybody there has denied that it was a team order I feel that Ferrari were first and second, nobody can say in which order it should have been. The decision was in the order that they finished the race."
