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McLaren receives suspended three-race ban for lying

— Photo: AP

Lewis Hamilton.

PARIS: McLaren was handed a suspended three-race ban on Wednesday, escaping a more severe punishment that could have completely derailed Lewis Hamilton’s bid to repeat as Formula One champion.

The World Motor Sport Council gave McLaren the suspension for lying to officials and other breaches of F-1 rules at the Australian and Malaysian Grand Prix races.

The WMSC said in a statement that the team admitted to five charges of breaching the International Sporting Code. The council expressed appreciation for the “open and honest” way in which McLaren conducted itself and recognised the change in culture at the team.

The three-race suspension will only be applied if McLaren commits a further rule breach or if new facts came to light, the statement said.

FIA President Max Moseley, who attended the hearing, said he did not think McLaren had been let off lightly and that McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh “made a very good impression, very straightforward.”

Team apologises

Whitmarsh said the team had apologised for lying to race officials when it said Hamilton was not given instructions to let Toyota’s Jarno Trulli make an illegal overtaking move while the pair were behind the safety car during the latter stages of the Australian GP.

Trulli was initially given a penalty of 25 seconds for overtaking, giving Hamilton third place.

McLaren then passed up two opportunities to rectify evidence it knew was false, and this led FIA to dock Hamilton’s points and void McLaren’s results from Melbourne.

Hamilton later apologised, saying he was “instructed and misled” about evidence by sporting director Dave Ryan, who McLaren blamed for masterminding the deception. He was then fired.

“I would like to thank the FIA World Motor Sport Council members for affording me the opportunity to answer their questions this morning,” Whitmarsh said. “We are aware that we made serious mistakes in Australia and Malaysia, and I was therefore very glad to be able to apologise for those mistakes once again. I was also pleased to be able to assure the FIA World Motor Sport Council members that we had taken appropriate action with a view to ensuring that such mistakes do not occur again.”

Asked if this is the end of the affair, Whitmarsh replied: “I very much hope so. I hope this will draw a line and we can carry on with racing.”

Hamilton has been struggling on the track with an uncompetitive car so far this season, and a suspension from racing for McLaren could have effectively ended any hopes he had of defending his title.

Hamilton has only nine points from the first four races this season, trailing championship leader Jenson Button by 22.

Two years ago, McLaren was fined a record $100 million and stripped of its constructors’ points for having obtained secret information about rival Ferrari’s car. — AP

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