By DPA
Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium) : Motorsports world governing body FIA president Max Mosley has said he would have excluded McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso as a result of the spy affair.
The FIA president told BBC Radio at the Belgian Grand Prix Sunday he was part of a minority on the governing body’s World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) Thursday that wanted a more severe penalty.
However, a significant majority on the council thought the drivers should keep their points.
Mosley said he believed Britain’s Hamilton would not feel totally comfortable should he win this year’s Formula One world championship in his maiden season.
McLaren were fined $100 million and stripped of all constructors’ points for this year after the council ruled the team benefited from the use of leaked documents from rivals Ferrari.
Only an immunity agreement with Hamilton, Alonso and reserve driver Pedro de la Rosa in return for information prevented them from being thrown out.
Mosley said the affair had cast a stain on the sport, and that Hamilton “will probably feel more comfortable if he wins a subsequent championship, which I am sure he will, without any of these question marks.”
The FIA chief said there was a big debate on whether or not to strip the drivers of their points.
“The lawyers felt everything should go – drivers points and all – because they argued: how can you give the world champion’s cup to someone who may have had an unfair advantage over other drivers?” he said.
“They have effectively cheated. But the other side of it was, here is this brilliant world championship between Hamilton and Alonso.
“The sporting people were saying, ‘If you interfere with that, you are spoiling a very good championship. It wasn’t the drivers’ fault.’ But there again, it never is.
“Very often, for example, a car will be disqualified from a race because it is a kilo overweight which will probably make no difference at all, but you have to have this principle. It’s the same as in athletics or anywhere else, if you’re outside the rules, you are not in the game.
“So there will always be a question mark over it, there has to be, because nobody knows how big an advantage they had from that. But that they had an advantage is almost beyond dispute.”
Asked whether he was disappointed, Mosley replied: “Slightly. I feel that when history comes to be written, when people look back in 10 to 15 years’ time and when all the emotions have gone, they will say, ‘Hang on a minute, we just don’t know what would have happened. Would Raikkonen or Massa maybe have won had it not been for this information flowing?’
“That’s not good for the sport, but that’s just my personal view and one has to respect the democratic majority.”