Bada Bing!

Can you believe this shit?! - http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=39432

One journalist from the Express is now claiming that McLaren have deliberately gagged Hamilton from talking to the press since the start of the Monaco weekend.

I think this is all getting out of hand, and that it's going to ultimately end in tears for Alonso.

AlexC

Bernie is just loving all this though, he loves anything that makes F1 bigger news, and more money for him.

But he won't be the one deciding the penalties, if any. I think McLaren will be able to justify their actions, and even Bernie has made clear it wouldn't be the drivers that get penalised.

Dembo

McLaren have now been cleared of fixing the race, despite admitting to, well, fixing the race.

chilled

I really don't see what all the fuss is about. Taking Ron Dennis at his word, Hamilton could have won if we'd seen the safety car. The decision to hold place near the end was the ONLY sensible one. If it was any other circuit I could see the complaint, but passing at Monaco is all but impossible. And neither car winning? Well that would have been a disaster all around considering their dominance.

It's only to be expected that Hamilton would whinge a bit. And why shouldn't he? But I believe it would be an immediate reaction from a situation he's probably never faced. He seems a bright enough lad and will realise that it's life, and his chance will come.

And on Gad's point about Mark Blundell. Just because you're shit, if you place the right politics, it doesn't mean you won't get a drive *cough* Takuma Sato *cough*

Dembo

It looked liked they'd held station at the end, which is fair enough, but afterwards Ron pretty much said they'd controlled the whole race, right from Hamilton neatly slotting into second at the start.

They've banned team orders several times over and it never seems to stop the teams doing it anyway. I think they need to either say it's okay, or come down hard on cases like this.

chilled

I think that stuff like this is ok. It didn't really spoil anything. But stuff like Barichello pulling over, that's shite to watch.

[EDIT] and the FIA agree with me. They've been cleared.

GarethB

The whole thing is stupid. Of course they would tell the drivers not to do anything silly as has already been said. So would any team. There was a MacLaren 1-2, Massa was quite a way back so it didn't change the result. Even Ecclestone's threat to deduct team points not driver points is a bit stupid, because if Hamilton had passed A-moaning-so-and-so then McLaren would still have got a 1-2

No, the anoying thing is Ron Dennis who complained when other teams used "team orders" while all the time doing it himself. And no-one cares.

Kobe

when did Dennis complain?though he has certainly always been more open about the topic than Todt/Brawn.

Monaco 2007 isn't exactly in the same ballpark as Austria/Indy 2002.

the crowd was certainly not booing in Monaco when Alonso got his trophy..

Bada Bing!

Exactly. Ferrari's actions were blatant, and disrespectful to both the drivers involved and the spectators.

McLaren's gave us a race where both drivers finished 90secs before the nearest competitor, so they were hardly hanging about. However it still ensured the engines/brakes were not unnecessarily stressed, and that no unnecessary risks were taken on track by the two drivers fighting for the win (which Alonso had won fair and square in the first two stints).

The FIA agrees.

AlexC

Obviously Ron would have been telling Lewis to avoid a first corner first lap crash, which is where it usually happens, and Sir Stirling Moss was also clearly telling Lewis before the race start not to do anything stupid - an attempt to pass there would most likely have caused a pile up as Alonso would not have wanted to let him through under any circumstances. Lewis may not have liked doing it, but he did the only sensible thing, which he has since spoiled by being so ungracious with his second place. He will grow up and learn.

I really can't see this is a case of the team doing anything wrong - you can't ban team owners from asking their drivers not to crash into each other and trying to conserve their engines for the next race. Lewis said in his post-race interviews that he really went for it at the end despite those instructions, so if he has any car problems in Canada, it will be entirely his own fault.