| | Reuters
HOCKENHEIM, Germany -- McLaren chief Ron
Dennis fueled a new row between his team and rivals Ferrari on
Saturday when he said the Italians had tried to get both of his
outfit's cars disqualified after the Austrian Grand Prix.
Dennis told a news conference that Ferrari had sent a letter
to the FIA's stewards to try to influence the outcome of the
hearing into the case of a missing seal on defending world
champion Mika Hakkinen's winning car.
The letter, signed by Ferrari sporting director Jean Todt,
urged the stewards to exclude both McLaren cars from the result
of the Austrian Grand Prix in which they had finished first and
second, said Dennis.
Finn Hakkinen won and Briton David Coulthard came in second in
the Austrian race, after which the scrutineers found that the
seal was missing on Hakkinen's car and that this violated technical regulations.
The hearing ignored the letter from Ferrari but found that
the McLaren car driven by Hakkinen did not comply with the
sport's strict technical regulations.
The team was fined $50,000 dollars and lost the 10 points it
had won for the constructors' championship, but Hakkinen kept
his 10 in the drivers' title race.
An angry Dennis, clearly upset at Ferrari's attempt to
influence the case, said: "There is no mechanism in the
regulations for a letter like this to be forwarded, but any top
team is more than capable of knowing what it is doing in
forwarding such a letter to the stewards."
Dennis went on to draw comparisons between the episode and
previous incidents, citing last year, when Ferrari appealed
successfully after their disqualification in Malaysia.
"Some people will go to any lengths to win, but for us that
would devalue the win itself," he said.
Dennis said he sympathised with the stewards who had to deal
with the case of the missing seal on Hakkinen's car and said he
did not see any point in appealing against the decision.
But his remarks are certain to trigger another episode of
ill-will and bitterness between the two teams, who have had years of
strained relations.
These were intensified after the so-called 'Jerezgate' tapes
affair in 1997 when Ferrari accused McLaren and Williams of
collusion in an effort to prevent Ferrari winning the European
Grand Prix.
Their difficulties continued last year when Ferrari were
cleared of technical infringements with their bargeboards in
Kuala Lumpur after a controversial appeal decision in Paris. | |
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McLaren stripped of points earned from Hakkinen win
Hakkinen leads McLaren sweep at Austrian GP
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