F1-Blog

McLaren being punished?

The German newspaper Bild has published what it says are details of why the McLaren team are at the bottom of the pit lane this weekend in Bahrain.

The Newspaper says that it is the FIA actioning it’s right to do this to the team, after Bernie Ecclestone had agreed with the relevant parties to allow the McLaren team to take the fifth pit garage.

This demotion will not really affect the team this week, as the Bahrain circuit is well setup, and all the teams get the same allocation of space, however if the FIA enforce this again whilst the teams are in Europe, then the McLaren outfit will suffer as space is limited at most European tracks, especially at the bottom end of the pit lane.

Bild says the reason this has happened is that the FIA agreed to the deal with Ernie, under the belief that Ron Dennis would stand down before the season start. Obviously this did not happen, and when Dennis went to collect the winners trophy in Australia, it seems that it annoyed ’someone’ in the FIA so much that they are forcing the team back down the lane.

If this is true, it is a petty, and despicable thing for the FIA to do, and after all the ‘limelight’ they have received this week it would be more advisable to keep one of the title contending teams happy. After all do we want the title decided on the fact that the FIA interfered again!