OK, Mercedes is cheating , but nobody is putting their hand up to expose it ..... BUT , let's say someone does ... then what ??!! Would the FIA have the balls to wipe out their wins ? Would they remove the WDC/WCC the cheats have won ? Or, would they, as usual, just slap them on the wrist and say "onya way boys, don't do it again ? " BTW I believe Ferrari have cheated in the past, during the MS era with the Russian programmers writing code that deleted the traction control software at the end of the race Just a "hypothetical"
What makes you believe, outside of their winning, that they are cheating? What makes you believe they wouldn’t be punished for said cheating? More harm would be done to F1 by not severely penalizing Mercedes so the FIA wouldn’t need to have “balls”. It would be the easiest and right choice to make.
Slap on the wrist at worse. The trouble is...The FIA is complacent, the new F1 owners haven't a clue what they're doing, they simply see it as great that ''the most popular driver'' (if we count instagram followers anyways) is doing all the winning. The current F1 owners are so far out of the depth they'll probably sue whoever they can after F1 has toppled.
Some people are obsessed by Mercedes cheating, because they don't accept their technical superiority during the present formula. What about the potential cheating by Ferrari last season? Very convenient for Ferrari and the FIA to deal with that behind closed doors, instead of bringing it up in the open. "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones!"
Results of previous years can´t be altered, even if they discovered now that Toto Wolff sacrificed 12 virgins to win. As for current season, it would depend on the cheat. From what we´ve seen so far, FIA always prefers to show a tidy image and throws issues under the carpet unless something is too big to hide.
Is this unknown Mercedes cheat more or less egregious than last years Ferrari engine? If there even is a cheat, will you be OK with a behind closed doors agreement between the FIA and Merc similar to last years behind closed doors deal between the FIA and Ferrari?
I tend to agree, especially when we look at the Alonso WDC he got from the "crash" but it seems anything Mercedes does which is questioned is dismissed out of hand but Ferrari are penalised and made to withdraw anything they "innovate" (suspected cheating) Anyone who has followed racing for any length of time knows that the winners have found a loophole that their opponents haven't in a formula based series
Well, Ferrari didn't win any titles for starters, let alone races, with whatever they did. Ferrari seemingly exploited a grey area and FIA couldn't prove what Ferrari did or didn't do, so case closed...what more can you do? Exclude them from 2019 championship? Go ahead, **** all will change.
Other than Belgium, Italy and Singapore! plus another 16 podium positions, sure they didn't win anything!
If you are referring to Singapore 2008, Hamilton was WDC. IMO the results from Singapore should have been excluded and Massa would have been WDC.
Yes Alonso and the Renault team would have been excluded from the results. Unfortunately the Crashgate scandal was uncovered only the following year.
Ummmm It's racing everyone on cheating every day... the goal is to not get caught. People cheat at Kart racing when there is just a stupid trophy at stake. What do you expect when its Millions at stake.
I humbly disagree: The aim is to bend the rules to the breaking point without actually entering the realm of cheating (doing something explicitly against the rules.) It is the holes in the rules, it is the inaccuracy of the spoken and written language, and it is the mismatch in vocabulary between engineers and rule writer that creates these holes. It took me 40 years as a computer architect to develop the skills necessary to merely minimize the misunderstanding between what I wrote and what they read. If you have tried to write something without holes in it, you can begin to understand how hard the problem is..
Agreed, but around here a Mercedes bending of, but staying inside, the rules is seen as a clear cheat. Conversely, Ferrari's FIA agreement last year may be seen as sailing close to the wind here, while the rest of the world see's a clear cheat being covered up.
I would expect Merc to be treated the same as Ferrari were last year. A promise of a thorough investigation, a minor slap on the wrist backed up by a generous donation to the FIA, and a promise to ‘fix it’ for next season. Not difficult really.
