McLaren team is confidentMcLaren claim they are confident an investigation into their team tactics in Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix will clear them of breaking the rules.
The FIA, Formula One's governing body, launched an inquiry Monday after
Fernando Alonso and Lewis
Hamilton posted a processional 1-2 for McLaren without ever fighting each other for the lead.
McLaren afterwards issued a vehement denial that they had acted illegally by ordering Hamilton not to challenge Alonso.
Announcing the probe FIA in a statement said: "The FIA has launched an investigation into incidents involving the McLaren Mercedes team at the 2007 Monaco Grand Prix in light of a possible breach of the International Sporting Code. The relevant evidence is under review and a further announcement will be made in due course."
McLaren were quick to respond, a spokesman for the British team telling AFP: "We are very confident about FIA's investigation into our race strategy."
He added: "All the decisions that we took before and during the race respect perfectly the international sporting code."
Team orders were banned in F1 after
Rubens Barrichello was told by Ferrari to let
Michael Schumacher win the Austrian Grand Prix in 2002. The Brazilian had blatantly slowed down in the final corner, letting Schumacher claim the race.
In a now-famous scene, spectators had vehemently protested by angrily throwing their Ferrari caps onto the racetrack.
At the traditional Sunday post-race press conference McLaren team chief Ron Dennis insisted in Monaco they had not favoured defending World Champion Alonso over Hamilton, the British rookie who has taken the sport by storm posting here his fourth successive second place.
Dennis faced a barrage of questions on McLaren's strategy especially in light of the fact that Alonso had begun the race around the streets of Monte Carlo in a car carrying five laps less fuel than Hamilton.
This meant that Alonso was not only in a lighter car for qualifying on Saturday, but also in a lighter, faster car for the first part of the race.
Hamilton accepted this with a long face when he said: "I am in car number two so I am the number two driver."
Dennis said he understood Hamilton's disappointment, but pointed out that he would have reacted very differently if the team strategy had played into his hands.
"I think he's understandably disappointed and frustrated," said Dennis. "He would not have been frustrated or disappointed if a Safety Car had been deployed and he won the race."
"Time will tell, wont it? We do not favour anybody. There will be times and places when they are free to race, but this isn't one of them," Dennis pointed out, referring to the risks of overtaking in Monte Carlo’s relatively narrow streets.
"Everybody in the pit-lane and the media would be saying, 'what an idiot the team principal from McLaren is for allowing his cars to compete, when one of them is in the barrier.'"
Dennis added that his decisions were not tantamount to team orders but formed instead a team strategy to win the race.
"Team orders is what you bring to bear to manipulate a Grand Prix. And we do not, and have not, manipulated Grands Prix," he stated.
Alonso leads the drivers' title race with 38 points, the same number as Hamilton, but has the edge as he has won two races this season while Hamilton has yet to secure his first F1 victory.
Source AFP
