Motor Sport:Formula One's governing body upheld a $100,000 fine for Ferrari but will impose no further sanction following the team orders controversy.
The Italian team faced a World Motor Sport Council hearing in Paris today to look into Fernando Alonso’s German Grand Prix victory, with Ferrari standing accused of using team orders, which are banned in Formula One, to engineer the result.
Ferrari were fined by race stewards after Alonso passed team-mate Felipe Massa in the closing stages to claim victory at Hockenheim. Massa had been told twice by engineer Rob Smedley over the pit-to-car radio that Alonso was faster than him.
The verdict would have come as a huge relief for Alonso, whose title hopes could have been ended if FIA had opted to punish the Spaniard who lies fifth in the standings and 41 points behind leader Lewis Hamilton of McLaren.
Ferrari, who would have had a one-two finish at Hockenheim even without the banned team orders being invoked, are third overall and 80 points adrift of leaders Red Bull.
The hearing was as much about the very nature of the sport as one single offence and the outcome will be controversial. There are those who argue that team orders should be legalised since they have been part of Formula One since the championship started in 1950 and have never really gone away.
Others say rules must be respected and to encourage overt manipulation of results would be a betrayal of the spirit of fair competition.