Federation Internationale de l'Automobile president Max Mosley made things perfectly clear to critics following a controversial blocking penalty against Fernando Alonso two weeks ago at the Italian Grand Prix: The rules cannot be reworked in the middle of the Formula One season because mid-stream changes would be unfair.
A week later, Mosley must have bumped his head and developed amnesia, which allowed FIA race director Charlie Whiting to sneak in a major change to the way blocking penalties would be assessed for the rest of the year.
"Complaints that a driver has been impeded during qualifying will no longer be referred to the stewards of the meeting," Whiting explained in a fax to all the teams last week.
"Only in cases where it appears to race control that there has been a clear and deliberate attempt to impede another driver will the stewards be asked to intervene."
Just a week before the latest change, Federation Internationale de l'Automobile president Max Mosley had said mid-season changes would be unfair. (JAcques Munch/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)
The new procedure means the race stewards will only consider incidents already determined to be intentional blocking by the FIA's race director. The message to the stewards will be clear: Apply a penalty.
Considering that a perceived pro-Ferrari bias in the FIA front office was believed by many in the paddock to be responsible for the Monza ruling, having Whiting decide the merits of any complaints probably won't sit well with most.
Alonso was penalized for blocking Ferrari's Felipe Massa during qualifying in Monza two weeks ago despite the fact the that distance between the cars never closed enough for the Renault to get in the way. Alonso, who originally qualified fifth, had his three fastest qualifying times deleted, which pushed him five spots down the grid to 10th.
Many thought Alonso simply did not block Massa at all and intention was never the question, including the reigning world champion who lashed out at the FIA, saying F1 was too political and no longer a sport.
Mosley agreed that it was unfair to apply the penalty in Alonso's case especially since the stewards ruled that any blocking was unintentional, but also added that rules are rules and they must be followed. He added that it would be ill-advised to change the rules in mid-season.
The Monza decision also came under heavy fire from many observers, including a number of former drivers turned commentators and F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone, who insisted that Ferrari gets "political support" from the FIA.
"The penalty for Alonso is a farce," Ecclestone told German publication Sport-Bild last week. "I just can't see any evidence that Alonso hindered Massa."
Fans chimed in with their displeasure in a pair of on-line surveys conducted last week that revealed about half of racing fans don't feel the FIA treated Renault and Alonso fairly.
The German-language website F1total.com got roughly 5,500 responses to its poll, which found that just more than half (50.35 per cent) believed that the FIA manipulates the world championship. It is important to note that F1total.com visitors would probably be more biased toward Michael Schumacher and Ferrari.
A survey by pitpass.com found that about 45 per cent of fans agreed that Renault was treated unfairly. It got about 24,000 responses.
While the FIA contacted one of the more influential F1 websites, grandprix.com, and happily pointed out that half the fans disagreed with the premise that something was wrong, it seemed to miss that clearly an equal number feel the F1 World Championship is as predetermined as World Wrestling Entertainment matches.
In the end, the FIA's solution to accusations that it has too much control over the outcome of the championship is to give itself more power in decisions that could determine the championship.
Furthermore, the reason for the FIA's U-turn seems equally difficult: "We now feel it is pointless for the stewards to engage in long and painstaking enquiries if competitors ignore clear scientific evidence and instead abuse the regulator," Whiting explained in his communiqué.
The abuse reference was the FIA taking the opportunity to mock Alonso and Renault team boss Flavio Briatore, who compared F1 to the scandal-ridden Italian soccer league where a number of teams were involved in match fixing and illegal betting.
More importantly, it is once again trying to intimidate the teams into line by giving FIA officials more discretionary power, which decidedly takes the sport's governing body in the wrong direction.
The FIA has had similar reactions to criticisms of bias in past years, but it was always able to dismiss the pro-Ferrari accusations as the work of a bunch of nutty conspiracy theorists.
But with about half of F1 fans feeling the fix is in and many commentators expressing their unhappiness with the way the sport is governed, restoring confidence in the legitimacy of the F1 World Championship will require more effort from the FIA than stomping its feet.
One thing is certain: Falling back on the arrogance and condescension that got the FIA into this mess in the first place isn't the right place to start.
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