- 08 Nov 07, 22:26#23240
"And Mansell was lucky not to be taken off by that RIDICULOUS bit of driving by Alliot!!" - James Hunt
"AAAAAND into the pitlane..... OHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" - Murray Walker
Before I start this topic, unless you didn't know already I am neutral in the Ferrari/McLaren debacle as I am a Williams and Jordan fan, secondly I do not want to see posts like "fERRAri are TEH cheating tozzorxz" "Alonso cheated by using info" etc as this will be just ignored which I know most of you don't do but you can never be too careful. 
After the recent events of Stepneygate, Raikkonen winning the title and Ferrari and Schumacher's dominance early in the decade, and of course Ferrari being the most successful F1 team in history, a lot of people seem to feel the FIA are biased towards Ferrari. One thing we all seem to agree on is that Max Moseley is an idiot and needs removing of his duties ASAP, but I don't quite think he's Ferrari biased. Here's a few points that should be considered.
Suzuka - 1990
Everyone knows the story of this one, Senna got pole position, asked the FIA to move the pole slot to the other side of the track, they agreed to do so but did not fulfill it, Prost gets away better, Senna rams him off at turn 1, becomes Champion, Berger goes off at the same corner 1 lap later, Mansell's Ferrari breaks down (again), Piquet and Moreno score Benetton 1-2 and Aguri Suzuki becomes the first Japanese driver on the podium etc etc.
The important thing here is that Prost was driving a Ferrari, and also Balestre was the FISA president at that time and Senna kept his title, and this was a year after Senna accused Balestre of fixing the 1989 Championship in Prost's favour (who was still with Senna at McLaren that year). Any sign of Ferrari bias or even French bias from the FIA here? Nope.
The 1990's - Williams dominance and Ferrari are nowhere
Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost in 1992 and 1993 pretty much coasted to the titles in their Williams cars that had the best Active suspension, ABS brakes, Traction control etc whilst Ferrari were pretty much nowhere and only led 1 Grand Prix - Jean Alesi in the opening laps of the 1993 Portuguese GP. If the FIA were "Ferrari biased" at this time, they would have taken away Williams' electonic gizmos away.
They did indeed take away TC, active suspension from them eventually though, but not just them though, all of the teams' gizmos - even Ferrari's. And this was for 1994, but originally they wanted to ban it from the Canadian GP with immediate effect, and the only team that wouldn't have been affected wasn't Ferrari, it was the Scuderia Italia team - the back of grid warmers of 1993 with their slow and heavy Lola chassis.
The Schumacher years - the ones he didn't get away with
Now we come to the Schumacher years at Ferrari and the occasions he didn't get away with any "dirty driving". First of all, Jerez 1997, he tries to take off Jacques Villeneuve, fails, loses the title and gets punished by the FIA and has his 2nd place in the title taken away from him.
Next we have Austria 2002, Barrichello's about to win, Jean Todt passes a piece of paper, Barrichello lets Schumacher through to win, the crowd boos, Schumacher feels embarrassed and Ferrari chicken up the podium ceremony and get hit with a whopping fine and team orders are banned.
And last but not least, Monaco 2006 qualifying. Schumacher's got provisional pole, Alonso and Webber are setting faster sector times than Schumacher who promptly "stalls" at Rascasse cocking everybody's laps up in order to keep pole. He gets all of his times taken away and is promptly sent to the back of the grid.
Discuss.
After the recent events of Stepneygate, Raikkonen winning the title and Ferrari and Schumacher's dominance early in the decade, and of course Ferrari being the most successful F1 team in history, a lot of people seem to feel the FIA are biased towards Ferrari. One thing we all seem to agree on is that Max Moseley is an idiot and needs removing of his duties ASAP, but I don't quite think he's Ferrari biased. Here's a few points that should be considered.
Suzuka - 1990
Everyone knows the story of this one, Senna got pole position, asked the FIA to move the pole slot to the other side of the track, they agreed to do so but did not fulfill it, Prost gets away better, Senna rams him off at turn 1, becomes Champion, Berger goes off at the same corner 1 lap later, Mansell's Ferrari breaks down (again), Piquet and Moreno score Benetton 1-2 and Aguri Suzuki becomes the first Japanese driver on the podium etc etc.
The important thing here is that Prost was driving a Ferrari, and also Balestre was the FISA president at that time and Senna kept his title, and this was a year after Senna accused Balestre of fixing the 1989 Championship in Prost's favour (who was still with Senna at McLaren that year). Any sign of Ferrari bias or even French bias from the FIA here? Nope.
The 1990's - Williams dominance and Ferrari are nowhere
Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost in 1992 and 1993 pretty much coasted to the titles in their Williams cars that had the best Active suspension, ABS brakes, Traction control etc whilst Ferrari were pretty much nowhere and only led 1 Grand Prix - Jean Alesi in the opening laps of the 1993 Portuguese GP. If the FIA were "Ferrari biased" at this time, they would have taken away Williams' electonic gizmos away.
They did indeed take away TC, active suspension from them eventually though, but not just them though, all of the teams' gizmos - even Ferrari's. And this was for 1994, but originally they wanted to ban it from the Canadian GP with immediate effect, and the only team that wouldn't have been affected wasn't Ferrari, it was the Scuderia Italia team - the back of grid warmers of 1993 with their slow and heavy Lola chassis.
The Schumacher years - the ones he didn't get away with
Now we come to the Schumacher years at Ferrari and the occasions he didn't get away with any "dirty driving". First of all, Jerez 1997, he tries to take off Jacques Villeneuve, fails, loses the title and gets punished by the FIA and has his 2nd place in the title taken away from him.
Next we have Austria 2002, Barrichello's about to win, Jean Todt passes a piece of paper, Barrichello lets Schumacher through to win, the crowd boos, Schumacher feels embarrassed and Ferrari chicken up the podium ceremony and get hit with a whopping fine and team orders are banned.
And last but not least, Monaco 2006 qualifying. Schumacher's got provisional pole, Alonso and Webber are setting faster sector times than Schumacher who promptly "stalls" at Rascasse cocking everybody's laps up in order to keep pole. He gets all of his times taken away and is promptly sent to the back of the grid.
Discuss.
"And Mansell was lucky not to be taken off by that RIDICULOUS bit of driving by Alliot!!" - James Hunt
"AAAAAND into the pitlane..... OHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" - Murray Walker
