Yesterday McLaren went to the FIA court of appeal to try to get the penalty on Lewis Hamilton during the Belgian Grand Prix overturned. After all the evidence was given and the judges deliberated overnight, the ruling came back as McLaren’s appeal was inadmissible. Basically Hamilton was handed a drive through penalty but say it was too late to administer the penalty in race, so handed the Briton a 25 second penalty, which is the estimated time he would have lost in drive through penalty. I see a number of problems with that decision, first and foremost; If the stewards were prompt in handing the penalty to McLaren they could have served the penalty and still may have finished 2nd as Nick Heidfeld only finished 1.2 seconds ahead of Hamilton in the revised result. Not only that, if Hamilton attacked the speed limit line and got back on the power promptly after crossing the pit exit line, he may have lost considerably less time than 25 seconds. Another thing is that race director Charlie Whiting said over the pit lane radio that Hamilton’s backing off was “OK”. I really can’t help thinking that McLaren have been screwed over by the FIA’s blatant bias towards Ferrari. Let’s take a look back to the British Grand Prix in 1998 when Michael Schumacher served a 10 second stop/go penalty after crossing the finish line winning the race. The situation was slightly different but nonetheless Ferrari got away without serving the penalty on a technicality. You have to wonder if the same happened today and McLaren pulled the same tactic, if the British team would have still been penalised. I know that people will say that it is sour grapes on my part but look up the history of events in the last 10 years where Ferrari have seemingly been given a break when it comes to rule infringements. If Massa wins this years championship by less than six points then a serious miscarriage of justice will have taken place as Hamilton should be leading the world championship by seven points, not one point as things currently stand!
Some of you may have noticed the “Free Speech Online Blue Ribbon Campaign” image at the bottom of the navigation section. That is related to the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) which basically keeps an eye on and protests infringements into peoples right to free speech, anonymity and privacy in the electronic domain. The American government has recently (very quietly) repealed a law designed to limit border controls right to search and read documents, be it physical or electronic. Basically, border control officers have the right to copy data from your mobile phone, laptop or other electronic device regardless or whether they have reasonable suspicion or not. I heard about this a month or so back which made me decide to leave my laptop at home as I’d rather not have my private documents snooped on. Even more scary is the fact that the information taken may be used far and beyond the call of border controls and can be kept for up to 40 years. I have nothing to hide but I object to having my private data read and kept despite not having any reason to suspect me to any wrongdoing! It’s another measure to limit our freedom!