Raikkonnen pulled off a first place in Belgium followed by his Ferrari teammate Massa. In third place was two time world champion Alonso in the McLaren.
Alonso was driving under a cloud brought on by Thursday’s courtroom revelation that McLaren in fact did have documents from Ferrari that they were using this year. Until that point I felt that the documents could have just as easily been planted.
So, now we know, McLaren-Mercedes is a cheat and they all knew it except the new driver Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton has had a fantastic year so far and I am sure that he is crushed by this problem. He may have a couple of more years with McLaren under contract. He was almost bred for this job by Mercedes and I am sure he has some loyalty to McLaren-Mercedes.
Alonso, on the other hand, got driver immunity for himself and Pedro de la Rosa before speaking against McLaren-Mercedes. I wouldn’t look for him to be with them next year. Some have said that if he wins the championship (now only 2 points behind Hamilton) they wouldn’t watch Formula One again. They always come back.
McLaren-Mercedes, got a heavy fine, $100 million and stripped of their constructor points for 2007. It makes the $5 million fine against Turkey last year look like a drop in the bucket. The money gets spread out between the teams and the balance going to some motorsport projects creating some new Hamilton’s no doubt.
All teams share a certain amount of information by hook or by crook. McLaren just got caught with their fingers in the Ferrari cookie jar.
