The Stepney Plot Thickens...Or Does It?

[Steven Roy]

I know Nick Fry is clueless but if someone comes to seek employment you do not shop him to his boss.  That is probably the craziest thing I have heard in this whole affair.  I assume someone has explained to Mr. Fry that F1 is known as the piranha club not the koi karp pond.  Why would you do such a thing?  What can he possibly gain from it?  No wonder his team is crap if every time they get a chance to progress he tells the guys at the front of the grid about it.  I can't imagine anyone who is considering moving to Honda would go anywhere near it now.

What is detergent going to do?  It may dissolve in the fuel and be flushed through the system but not much else.  Even if it damages an engine it would only be the Friday engine which is going to be out of the car on Friday night.  Maybe Ferrari are worried that it would blow bubbles out of the exhaust and make them look silly.

[Chameleon]

To give Fry his due, I'm not sure that it was a case of shopping the guys to their bosses.  It may have been that Stepney and Coughlan wanted everything to be above board and assured Fry that their teams knew they were looking elsewhere.  Certainly in Stepney's case, he had already made clear that he was open to offers in an earlier interview with Autosport magazine.  But, whatever the truth, it's clear that nothing illegal went on in the interviews.

As for the detergent, I dunno, tomorrow it will probably turn out to be Montezemolo's face powder that dropped off in a visit to the factory...

[raindancer]

Honda were always going to be involved and when a person leaves a team he goes with most valueable piece of Information ever stored. His brain.

[johnbull]

For the first time in my life I'm actually looking forward to that twit of an Italian F1 commentator on telly.

I'd love to know what he's going to come up with today and tomorrow.

I think I'll even record qualifying today, just so I can listen to the rubbish over and over again, and then pass it over to you lot for you to have a laugh too.

[Chameleon]

Do that, John - sounds like it could be a good laugh. 

[johnbull]

Hey guys, it was worth it. Right on queue the Italian commentator called it SPY STORY and even gave it Pink Panther background music.

Every question he asked everybody revolved around SPY STORY. Bugger the rest of the proceedings. He interviewed Mario Illien in German which I don't understand. I could see from his expressions that Illien's reply was something to the effect that it should all be taken with a pinch of salt, but his translation to his Italian audience was something to the effect that this is very serious and the FIA should investigate it seriously. I'd love to know what Illien actually said but I bet it's nothing like that.

He even had the cheek to interview Ron Dennis and Ron gave him a typical load of ronspeak which he promptly totally misinterpreted. Ronspeak will have gone right over his head.

Next on the interview list was Flav who shugged it all off as a journalists joke, much to the commentator's disgust.

In between all this there were pictures of a jubilant Stepney with Michael S, and pictures of Ferrari mechanics wiping dust from under a car. Real theatre! 

But the classic came just as qualifying finished when he interviewed one of the Ferrari lot, Baldisseri I think. I couldn't believe the question. I nearly fell off my seat. Luka, do you think we are not on pole because they have managed to temporarily distract Ferrari with this latest scandal?

Oh, and among all this Lewis pulled a fantastic lap out of the bag to take a superb pole, but the commentator was too busy talking about his SPY STORY to even notice it or give it any credit.

I'm looking forward to part 2 tomorrow.

[Chameleon]

Amazing how much the view changes according to where you stand... 

[Chameleon]

Stepney has made a very full statement to the press.  The text is here:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/60613

It sounds very plausible to me, particularly as there are echoes of what other people have said about Ferrari's ways of working back in the pre-Schumacher/Todt/Brawn days.  I think it's a telling point that he hasn't actually been charged with anything and is just under investigation.

But make up your own mind...

[Steven Roy]

I have to say I believe everything he said.  It makes sense.  Ilove the comment that he knows where the bodies are buried.  I guess that is a threat to Ferrari to back off or he will talk.  Ferrari as usual have not thought through their strategy.  If the guy becomes unemployable by an F1 team his only source of income is going to be telling his story in a book and on TV and I assume that is the last thing Ferrari wants.  I can't wait until someone sticks a microphone in front of Ross Brawn to get his opinion.

[johnbull]

One thing is certain after this farse, and that is that Ross Brawn will be having very serious doubts about returning to Italy, and in particular to Ferrari.

We seem to be going back to the days of Dragoni. Anyone remember him as Ferrari team manager? He really was a dragon.

Off to watch the GP now.

Lewis and Massa will probably be running light, Kimi and Nando will be heavy as usual. That should make it interesting. Italian telly says nando has 4 more laps than Lewis and Kimi has even more. We'll see.

[johnbull]

PART 2.

Looks like all the Italians are jumping on the band wagon and coming to the sort of conclusions we expect out of them.The first words the Italian commentator uttered were SPY STORY, though there was no Pink Panther music today. He actually had the cheek to bring it up again with Ron D, and of course Ron gave him the usual ronspeak speil which I have no doubt he didn't understand a word of.

He also managed to interview Flav again on the subject. Flav simply said there is no place for spies in F1 but again asked the commentator not to jump to conclusions, which is in fact the same answer he got when he interviewed Bernie E.

Luca Montezemolo gave a phone interview and was more accusing, saying that the result was poetic justice and had given Mc Laren what they deserved, and he was thrilled that it happened at Silverstone. Sounded just like a Mussolini or Hitler speech.

Frankly there was more talk on how lousy Mc Laren and Ron Dennis are than the actual race itself. I was surprised that Alesi too was completely damning and had already made his mind up that Ferrari had been robbed and that Mc laren were the villains. I have hitherto credited him with more sense. Cesare Fiorio on the other hand was completely reserved on the matter and once again told everyone in no uncertain manner that they were all jumping to conclusions and he preferred to wait for an official verdict. Sensible guy.

The race itself, although my heart said Hamilton, my mind all along said Kimi. I think Mc Laren got it wrong again putting Lewis on hard tyres in the first stint. Running light, he needed to pull out as much as possible. Alonso proved that the car was much quicker on the soft tyres. I would have thought they would have known this.

I also think, though hindsight is a wonderful thing, that they could have put another second's worth of fuel in Alonso's car at his first stop. This would have reduced the deficit and he just may have managed to come out in front of Kimi again. Having said all this, both Ferraris were considerably faster than Mc laren today.

And Lewis got his 9th podiums in as many starts.

Good races by Massa and Kubica but we may as well have gone to sleep after the second lot of pit stops. Unless the system is changed we might as well reduce races to 2/3rds distance and wave the checkered flag a lap after the leader's last stop.

[The Stig]

http://f1insight.madtv.me.uk/
Went there,are you just riding on the back of GP Wizard Chamelon??

[Chameleon]

All my own work, Stig - I read the news and form my own opinions.  Have been blogging F1 for over a year now (previous blog http://www.formula1latest.com/ but ignore the Hamilton groupie posts after May 22nd - it's now being written by an idiot who merely regurgitates what he reads in the tabloid press).

[Ian]

Ooooh, sharp, mind you don't cut yourself Chameleon.

[Chameleon]

To be honest, I'm not quite sure what the Stig meant by that, Ian.  Just trying to clarify...