Whitmarsh Plans to Throw Mclaren on Mercy of World Motor Sport Council
Martin Whitmarsh hopes admission of guilt will mitigate McLaren's punishment for lying to race stewards in Australia
McLaren will find out whether their conciliatory efforts to build bridges with formula one's governing body behind the scenes have paid off when they appear in front of the FIA's world motor sport council in Paris tomorrow morning to answer five charges that they brought the sport into disrepute by lying to the race stewards at the Australian grand prix.
The allegations stem from the events which took place in the closing stages of the race in Melbourne, when Lewis Hamilton, apparently encouraged by the team's former sporting director Dave Ryan, tricked Toyota's Jarno Trulli into illegally re-passing his McLaren during a period in which the safety car had been deployed. Both men subsequently denied this at two consecutive stewards' meetings, despite being played recordings of their conversation over the McLaren pit-to-car radio.
The British driver and and his team face the possibility of being exclusion from the world championship, or at least suspension from a number of races but McLaren have been working hard behind the scenes to demonstrate that their approach towards the FIA has become less confrontational.
The first signs of this strategy appeared during last weekend's Bahrain grand prix when Richard Lapthorne, the McLaren Group's newly appointed non-executive chairman, lunched with Bernie Ecclestone, the formula one commercial rights holder, and Alan Donnelly, the FIA president Max Mosley's right-hand man. Ryan had already been sacked and the former McLaren team principal Ron Dennis, who had a tense and testy relationship with Mosley, had also withdrawn from formula one to concentrate on developing a new range of road cars.
McLaren's principal, Martin Whitmarsh, hopes all this will help his team's cause at hearing but is ready to put their case on his own without the help of any defence counsel. It is understood that he will simply read a prepared statement, take questions from the court and effectively submit the team to their verdict without further debate. He will be accompanied in court by the McLaren in-house lawyer Tim Murnane, who will not be speaking.
Whitmarsh will be hoping that by coming clean and effectively throwing himself on the mercy of the court he will go some way towards mitigating the seriousness of any penalties. Hamilton, who will not be present, will just be hoping to put the whole sorry episode behind him and get on with the defence of his world championship title.
"We're trying to build a relationship with the FIA and beyond that looking ahead," Whitmarsh he said. "Historically, on moderate regulation issues, we've always had that relationship. But I think we have to build in some other areas of that to make sure we steer this team in the right direction."Asked if he was hopeful that tomorrow would see an end to the matter, and then that there would be no punishment, Whitmarsh's short answers were "yes" and "no" respectively. Expanding on that, he replied: "We are co-operating with the FIA and it's for the world motor sport council to decide what necessary steps should be taken."ENDS
The allegations stem from the events which took place in the closing stages of the race in Melbourne, when Lewis Hamilton, apparently encouraged by the team's former sporting director Dave Ryan, tricked Toyota's Jarno Trulli into illegally re-passing his McLaren during a period in which the safety car had been deployed. Both men subsequently denied this at two consecutive stewards' meetings, despite being played recordings of their conversation over the McLaren pit-to-car radio.
The British driver and and his team face the possibility of being exclusion from the world championship, or at least suspension from a number of races but McLaren have been working hard behind the scenes to demonstrate that their approach towards the FIA has become less confrontational.
The first signs of this strategy appeared during last weekend's Bahrain grand prix when Richard Lapthorne, the McLaren Group's newly appointed non-executive chairman, lunched with Bernie Ecclestone, the formula one commercial rights holder, and Alan Donnelly, the FIA president Max Mosley's right-hand man. Ryan had already been sacked and the former McLaren team principal Ron Dennis, who had a tense and testy relationship with Mosley, had also withdrawn from formula one to concentrate on developing a new range of road cars.
McLaren's principal, Martin Whitmarsh, hopes all this will help his team's cause at hearing but is ready to put their case on his own without the help of any defence counsel. It is understood that he will simply read a prepared statement, take questions from the court and effectively submit the team to their verdict without further debate. He will be accompanied in court by the McLaren in-house lawyer Tim Murnane, who will not be speaking.
Whitmarsh will be hoping that by coming clean and effectively throwing himself on the mercy of the court he will go some way towards mitigating the seriousness of any penalties. Hamilton, who will not be present, will just be hoping to put the whole sorry episode behind him and get on with the defence of his world championship title.
"We're trying to build a relationship with the FIA and beyond that looking ahead," Whitmarsh he said. "Historically, on moderate regulation issues, we've always had that relationship. But I think we have to build in some other areas of that to make sure we steer this team in the right direction."Asked if he was hopeful that tomorrow would see an end to the matter, and then that there would be no punishment, Whitmarsh's short answers were "yes" and "no" respectively. Expanding on that, he replied: "We are co-operating with the FIA and it's for the world motor sport council to decide what necessary steps should be taken."ENDS
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