Alonso cooperates

It looks like Alonso is paying back the team for their favoring of British driver Hamilton over the "bloody Spaniard"

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?seriesId=6&id=3009955

 

Understandable as Mosley could probably revoke his Super license for ever.

Now what was the evidence ...

 

As he should have done.

If McLaren did something wrong, they should pay. Alonso and Hamilton and DLR should *never* even entertain the thought of helping in a cover-up. If Mac did wrong, let them pay. If they did not... "the truth shall set you free".

 

The problem here is that Alonshole and De la rosa were covering it up since the winter testing. Alonshole is now the biggest goof of any F1 driver ever.

 

"Mosley asked the three drivers to cooperate "in the interests of the sport and the Championship" and offered them amnesty in return. Mosley also wrote that "serious consequences would follow" if they were later found to "have withheld any potentially relevant information.""

What BS giving them amnesty.............

Who would give amnesty before finding out what they knew and what they did?

 

answer: Moseley.

It's politics. Keep the LH and FA fans happy.

sports have a hard time policing themselves. NAStyCAR on the other hand doles out fines, point reductions and suspensions on an almost weekly basis. They have the appearance of really policing the rules strictly and appear to be on top of things. F1 finds the McCheaters guilty of the biggest infraction of espionage in several years (maybe from inception) and gives no punishment. This gives teams the impression that they can get away with things. When they are caught red handed (Alonso blocking Lewis) by the TV cameras and the team and the drivers blatantly lie about it, the FIA are forced to do something. I am not impressed with the way F1 is run AT ALL.

I will not be surprised if Dennis the Menace and his henchmen drivers weasel out of any meaningful punishment. We'll see.

 

But a two time WDC goof at that. Give the guy some credit for driving skills. And I would take Alonso over that smarmy little pom team mate of his anytime.

Re the evidence - how many people in their jobs, if presented with some new stuff to use that made their jobs easier and their product better, would risk their livelihood and blow the whistle saying their bosses stole the idea. I'd bet not a single one of you would proactively take that step. If you were put on the spot by the authorities then you'd be foolish not to cooperate, but to actively step up and say so - never happen! There are maybe one of two whistleblower lawsuits in the US per year - in a country of 300 million people! I'm sure everyone else is totally above board. Yeah right!
This whole mess isn't like selling nuclear warhead technology to Al-Quaida after all. It's just a bunch of adults playing games with enlarged slot cars.

 

Looking into my crystal ball I see.... half fills for Alonshole at each pit stop.
Sorry, "Alonshole" offends some.... Alonswipe.

 

Chicken and egg, my friend. No amnesty, no info, therefore no case. Happens all the time in DA offices around the country.

 

IMO, i think the reason Alonso decided to cooperate is to rescue his career. imagine what would have happened if FIA found both Mac and the drivers guilty of having Ferrari stuff, and FIA would probably suspend the drivers for not coopperating.

 

I don't agree

I bet they had enough info to know if they knew about the evidence. If I was the Pres. of the FIA I would have told them to provide all the evidence you have or you don't drive again............ever.........

DAs don't usually give amnesty deals to criminals. They might work a deal, but amnesty?

I'm a MB / Mclaren & LH fan and this disgusts me, if the allegations are true......

 

We have a winner !
Even then there is no proof that Ronney stole the ideas. And if he DID, for gosh sake this is F1 racing, not a quilting bee.
The ultimate irony is that Ferrari is casting the first stone.

 

If you keep striking the nail, pretty soon it will be on the other side of the board.

 

Even some of the McCheater fans are disgusted.

 

DAs offer amnesty all the time, especially to catch a bigger fish. The whole witness protection program is amnesty with added benefits of identity change.

 

BULLSEYE!

 

And what would you do/have done _in his place_ ?

 

what does this "Amnesty" mean ?

Does it mean that even if it is found that McLaren cheated, Alonso or Hamilton can keep driving the rest of the season and potentially win the championship ? or are they out for the season ?

If out for the season then what are they getting amnesty for ? to me amnesty means whatever you did wrong you are pardoned for it and its as if it did not happen so they should be able to continue driving, of course it might not be in a McLaren if they get wiped out for the season.

I guess I am confused as to what this amnesty means to them since without a car what good is amnesty, yeah I guess it means next year they can go to another team and race but not sure what it does this year if anything, I also think amnesty was given a little prematurely, in the real world you determine that someone has information that would be useful to you and then you give them amnesty in exchange for the information, from what I know it was not determined that they knew anything yet (but then again I am not part of the "in" club)

 

I would guess it means no specific penalties would be given to the drivers for failing to (previously) disclose what they knew or had in their posession. I would take that to mean that if Mac ended up getting DQ'ed, then Alonso/Hamilton still would be SOL for the year - although maybe they would be allowed to keep their WDC points. If they did not cooperate and tried to cover something up after Mosley's letter, I would guess the punishment may include revokation of superlicense, banning from the sport for a period of time, loss of WDC points, or cash fines.

It will be very interesting to see what comes out of this next hearing - and if it goes in Mac's favor, I hope the matter can finally be dropped. If it goes against them, I hope they get what they deserve.

 

Woking senior management would have to be total morons to allow people they contract (aka drivers) to become involved with the inner workings of the outfit. Group hugs are definitely not in the McLaren vernacular and RD is notorious for viewing drivers as a necessary evil. If Fred, LH or DLR were to have pertinent info on espionage, I believe it was most likely leaked to them within by someone in the know independently. As it stands, Fred has nothing to lose by divulging what he may have in his files. I'm sure he believes the jig is up regardless and now that amnesty is on the table, he's out to distance himself from the inevitable.

 

Interesting take on the matter.

I wonder.... if Alonso did have the info, but did not let Ron or the team know he had it, and received it from Pedro DLR who got it from Stepney directly (who was trying to help out his competition out of hatred for Ferrari), then I wonder if the FIA would deem McLaren to be liable for that?

On the one hand, Alonso is an employee of the team. Coughlan has already been dismissed/suspended. Alonso was given immunity. If Alonso admitted he also had the docs but did not let on to Ron, would McLaren then have to suspend him also to "save face"? Or would his amnesty form Mosley prevent that from happenning?

If Alonso got it from DLR and DLR got it from Stepney, and if Alonso never told anyone he had it, then I do not think it should really change the situation with McLaren in terms of upcoming punishment vs. what they already got. But if Alonso DID have it, then I wonder if he would be ousted from Mac? That would be a gigantic twist on the season.

 

OK, so it is either Alonshole winning with a cheater team/car, or the team won with a cheating driver.
Either way their season is done. Even if they win it would be worthless other than just a statistic as everyone would remember it as Alonshole's McCheater team involved in Stepneygate.
It really is a shame as it was an interesting season and a close fight.

 

Max made him an offer he couldn't refuse!

 

Funny as it pretty much involved a cut off black horse' head

 

All good ponderings, Mike. The permutations seem endless, don't they ? At this point, I believe it's safe to say the authorities view the actual info Mclaren received from Ferrari as secondary. What they're after at this point is who in the team knew they had it and if they were aware of its origin. I believe the authorities already have a line on some of this but by granting the drivers amnesty, they'll gain a further insight into the depth of who was privy to the theft within the ranks.