When Ron Dennis first entered F1 as a result of buying the struggling McLaren team, I knew nothing about him. The immediate change he made to the team, taking them with unbelievable speed to the front of the grid, I tended to put down to the influence of his designer, John Barnard, and the Porsche/TAG engine. After the disappearance of both, the continued excellence of the McLaren team should have told me that the real genius of its success was Ron but I was too busy supporting other teams to notice. Mr Dennis went uninspected by me.
Ron Dennis
What I did notice, however, was the machine-like efficiency of the team under his direction. Even when unable to get competitive engines, the McLaren cars remained a factor that other teams could not ignore. Some of this was due to Ron's unfailing eye for the best drivers but much was also thanks to the excellence of other members of the team.
And then this pathetic "spy story" erupted from Maranello. Suddenly it became important to know this man Ron Dennis, to attempt to see who was lying and who was truthful. I have watched carefully and done my homework and emerged convinced of the man's honesty and integrity. Some dislike him for his manner and convoluted speech patterns; to me, that speaks of someone who is trying to make sure that there are no misunderstandings - I have been known to twist myself in similar knots in the cause of clear communication.
The WMSC verdict and penalty has done nothing more than convince me that Ron is not the one in the wrong here and neither is his company. Even though it is irrelevant to the judgement whether McLaren gained advantage from Ferrari information or not since the charge was one of bringing the sport into disrepute, I do not believe that McLaren used any part of the information held by Mike Coughlan. If Ron says it was not so, then it was not so.
The real issue is whether any amount of "bringing the sport into disrepute" deserves the penalty handed out. No, I haven't seen the full verdict of the "court" yet but I can judge for myself how damaging any actions of McLaren's have been to the sport. And the answer is that, at this stage, McLaren are clearly not guilty as charged. If damage has been done, it has been entirely the fault of the FIA and its court, the WMSC.
What the WMSC has done is confuse the charge with suspicions. It is their opinion that McLaren have done harm to the image of the sport and they are entitled to have their view on that. But they have sentenced as though McLaren had been found guilty of another charge entirely - that of using illicitly-obtained information from another team to gain advantage in the races. That has not been proved and was not on the charge sheet anyway.
I do not care what was in the much-hyped emails between Alonso and de la Rosa; that was not public knowledge before the FIA demanded them and so cannot be evidence that McLaren have brought the sport into disrepute. All of this so-called evidence is fodder for the civil and criminal cases that have yet to begin; it relates to the matter of whether McLaren is guilty of industrial espionage or not and has nothing to do with any charges of bringing the sport into disrepute. If the emails are damaging in that way, the FIA is the guilty party since they were the ones who brought them to our notice.
It should be remembered that we are not dealing with a court of law here. The WMSC is a committee set up by the FIA to rule on matters of dispute within the sport. Problems are bound to arise when it is the FIA that brings a complaint to the committee since the members of the WMSC are appointed by the FIA. It is as though the plaintiff were allowed to select the judge and jury in a legal trial. We should not be surprised, therefore, that no ruling of the WMSC has ever gone against the decisions of the FIA.
It is also no wonder that the committee should have allowed themselves to become confused over what they were being called to rule upon and the selection of a suitable penalty for their verdict. The pressures upon them have been immense and the production of evidence irrelevant to the case so persuasive that they have ventured far beyond their remit and behaved in a reprehensible manner as a result.
If the charge is that McLaren brought F1 into disrepute, then the plaintiff must prove firstly that the sport has indeed been brought into disrepute and then that McLaren was responsible for this happening. That has not been addressed at all. If the committee are saying that McLaren are guilty of industrial espionage which had the effect of lowering the image of F1, then they should wait for the verdicts of properly constituted courts who will decide whether McLaren are indeed guilty of the charge. It is not the committee's job to decide that for itself.
Part of the problem is that the rule is so vague that deciding whether disrepute has happened or not is a matter of opinion. It is almost impossible to prove and equally difficult to defend against. In my own case, the whole affair has raised my assessment of Ron Dennis and his company tenfold whilst reinforcing my dislike of the way Ferrari and the FIA go about things. I suspect that the same is true for many who have watched as events unfolded.
It is a matter of opinion. And no-one's opinion is worth the draconian penalty handed out by the committee yesterday, even had the disrepute charge been proved. If we are shocked, we should be.
Ron Dennis
What I did notice, however, was the machine-like efficiency of the team under his direction. Even when unable to get competitive engines, the McLaren cars remained a factor that other teams could not ignore. Some of this was due to Ron's unfailing eye for the best drivers but much was also thanks to the excellence of other members of the team.
And then this pathetic "spy story" erupted from Maranello. Suddenly it became important to know this man Ron Dennis, to attempt to see who was lying and who was truthful. I have watched carefully and done my homework and emerged convinced of the man's honesty and integrity. Some dislike him for his manner and convoluted speech patterns; to me, that speaks of someone who is trying to make sure that there are no misunderstandings - I have been known to twist myself in similar knots in the cause of clear communication.
The WMSC verdict and penalty has done nothing more than convince me that Ron is not the one in the wrong here and neither is his company. Even though it is irrelevant to the judgement whether McLaren gained advantage from Ferrari information or not since the charge was one of bringing the sport into disrepute, I do not believe that McLaren used any part of the information held by Mike Coughlan. If Ron says it was not so, then it was not so.
The real issue is whether any amount of "bringing the sport into disrepute" deserves the penalty handed out. No, I haven't seen the full verdict of the "court" yet but I can judge for myself how damaging any actions of McLaren's have been to the sport. And the answer is that, at this stage, McLaren are clearly not guilty as charged. If damage has been done, it has been entirely the fault of the FIA and its court, the WMSC.
What the WMSC has done is confuse the charge with suspicions. It is their opinion that McLaren have done harm to the image of the sport and they are entitled to have their view on that. But they have sentenced as though McLaren had been found guilty of another charge entirely - that of using illicitly-obtained information from another team to gain advantage in the races. That has not been proved and was not on the charge sheet anyway.
I do not care what was in the much-hyped emails between Alonso and de la Rosa; that was not public knowledge before the FIA demanded them and so cannot be evidence that McLaren have brought the sport into disrepute. All of this so-called evidence is fodder for the civil and criminal cases that have yet to begin; it relates to the matter of whether McLaren is guilty of industrial espionage or not and has nothing to do with any charges of bringing the sport into disrepute. If the emails are damaging in that way, the FIA is the guilty party since they were the ones who brought them to our notice.
It should be remembered that we are not dealing with a court of law here. The WMSC is a committee set up by the FIA to rule on matters of dispute within the sport. Problems are bound to arise when it is the FIA that brings a complaint to the committee since the members of the WMSC are appointed by the FIA. It is as though the plaintiff were allowed to select the judge and jury in a legal trial. We should not be surprised, therefore, that no ruling of the WMSC has ever gone against the decisions of the FIA.
It is also no wonder that the committee should have allowed themselves to become confused over what they were being called to rule upon and the selection of a suitable penalty for their verdict. The pressures upon them have been immense and the production of evidence irrelevant to the case so persuasive that they have ventured far beyond their remit and behaved in a reprehensible manner as a result.
If the charge is that McLaren brought F1 into disrepute, then the plaintiff must prove firstly that the sport has indeed been brought into disrepute and then that McLaren was responsible for this happening. That has not been addressed at all. If the committee are saying that McLaren are guilty of industrial espionage which had the effect of lowering the image of F1, then they should wait for the verdicts of properly constituted courts who will decide whether McLaren are indeed guilty of the charge. It is not the committee's job to decide that for itself.
Part of the problem is that the rule is so vague that deciding whether disrepute has happened or not is a matter of opinion. It is almost impossible to prove and equally difficult to defend against. In my own case, the whole affair has raised my assessment of Ron Dennis and his company tenfold whilst reinforcing my dislike of the way Ferrari and the FIA go about things. I suspect that the same is true for many who have watched as events unfolded.
It is a matter of opinion. And no-one's opinion is worth the draconian penalty handed out by the committee yesterday, even had the disrepute charge been proved. If we are shocked, we should be.