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Thursday, 26th June 2008

Former F1 World Champion Niki Lauda joins in the criticism of the controversial penalties dished out by the FIA to McLaren in recent weeks.

“You can also ask questions about the consistency with which penalties are applied,” the respected Scot said in an interview with AFP. “A lot of people – and not McLaren personnel – are saying that the FIA are more interested in finding faults at McLaren than at other teams.

“For example, in the French race, Kimi Raikkonen's exhaust system broke and part of it was visibly hanging off the car. Why wasn't he called into the pits to have the loose piece removed?

“Eventually the loose bodywork flew off the car, which could easily have been dangerous to the public or to another driver. Some people will say that if it had happened with a McLaren, the team would have been fined.”

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“The race director considered the risk to be low, as the part in question was light,” an FIA spokesperson is quoted by GPWeek as having countered.

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