LH lied to stewards?

That's actually the funny part: They should be penalized for being so blatantly stupid. I mean c'mon, we have telemetry, TV pictures and taped pit-car radio communication. How on Earth did they ever think they'd get away with this?

But then again this comes from the same team who thought that all the emails and phone calls with Stepney would be considered to be merely an exchange for cooking recipes etc.

 

Andreas, consider the scenario if they had not lied. Would it be possible the final standings would have remained, and Hamilton would have been given third? Letting Trulli go by could be explained as "not knowing the FIA's interpretation of Trulli's off track excursion,so we chose to fall back and lose position to Trulli and let you fine intelligent stewards make the final decision". Gosh, they would have appeared as nice guys.

Or is there more to this? One story I've heard is that Hamilton appeared to brake check Trulli, that is why Trulli went around him.

It appears from the radio transmission they tried to do the right thing, but brainless and clueless got in the way.

 

I can't imagine Toyota would be such push overs as to not have filed a complaint and launched an investigation.

 

Trulli went off track, what does the rules say about that relative to the yellow flag?

Also, Toyota did file a complaint, but then withdrew the complaint before the Hamilton issue was made public. I thought that was strange. Then I heard that Toyota caught wind of a rumor that Whiting was angry at Hamilton and McLaren for misleading him, so they withdrew their complaint before it all became public so as to not get caught up in that mess.

The joke in the paddock, don't ever be caught sending a film crew to an orgy involving well known sports figures.

 

Tifosi...I actually agree with you on the principal involved, just not the punishment. What they did in no way effected the outcome of the race, as the result was decided by the stewards. It's not the same as deliberately pushing someone of the track or breaking their car. They have lost all the points from the race, publicly humiliated and embarrassed and resulted in great discord within the team. I think that is sufficient punishment for the level of crime. I still believe that LH was in a difficult situation after his team management basically 'told' him what to say (...again, not to avoid the issue of personal responsibility). I think the eventual fallout from this will be LH leaving McLaren...and joining Ferrari. There, that should make all of you happy...!! ;-)

 

Lets assume for a moment that Lewis' story is true:

His team ordered him to be unclear/mislead the Stewarts.

He did it! He should not have. If my boss asked me to mislead/lie to auditors, I would not. Lewis should have told Dave to go take a Swivel. Honestly, I find it more reprehensible that Lewis accepted an order to lie rather than just doing it himself.

This of course assumes that they did not throw Dave under the bus for PR. I can see Hamilton's camp telling McLaren to clean this up so Lewis comes out looking better or else. Lewis is worth more than some race manager, so they complied. Just another theory.

-dsd