The punishment must fit the crime

The fallout from Melbourne continues. Dave Ryan, McLaren's sporting director, has been suspended, and Lewis Hamilton disqualified from the Australian GP. But now there is talk of further action being taken against Hamilton and McLaren, even to the extent that they could be excluded from the championship altogether.

Lying to the stewards should never be a matter that is taken lightly, but common sense must prevail. The punishment in this case must fit the crime. It should be remembered that no offence was committed during the race itself. It was only afterwards, in the stewards' hearing, that any wrongdoing took place - when Ryan and Hamilton denied having consciously allowed Jarno Trulli to take back his place under the safety car.

In essence, McLaren tried to pull a fast one over the stewards, and were later found out. Without question it is a punishable offence, but surely a fine or suspended ban is more in order. To impose a retrospective penalty - disqualification from the race - is out of proportion and makes no sense. How can a driver be penalised in the race for something that happened hours after the chequered flag had fallen?

It would be far better to reinstate the original result, with Trulli awarded third and Hamilton fourth, and put an end to this practice of interfering with the race result - a practice that is sadly becoming all too familiar.

Above all the FIA must be wary of overreacting. Instead it should turn its attention to the source of all this confusion: the ever-changing safety car regulations (and in particular Section 40.7) which, as McLaren's radio transmissions show, are not understood by all the teams. Amidst the controversy this is something which has been forgotten, but which needs to be addressed. 

Photo reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license from an image uploaded to Flickr.com by eugeneflores.