Can Ron come back now please?

Drat! I was quite looking forward to the carnage of an all-out war between the FIA/FOTA/circuits/drivers/championships, etc. And to Bernie having to switch sides and Mosley being sacked. He's got off very lightly hasn't he?

Ron Dennis for FIA President!

I hope the FOTA series goes ahead to teach these bitter, incontinent senile dictators a lesson. And forget Flav as the new Bernie - that'll be Ron, just to rub salt (and vinegar) into the wounds. You read it here first!

Alonso is surely confirming here that he will be racing with Ferrari next year? If he's there and they're not in F1 then he'll be in sportscars or Indycars won't he?

Ferrari have held a veto on the rules since 1998, thus ensuring that their competitors race to the rules that best suit Ferrari, hence all their success since 2000. Now they can't skew the rules in favour of their design they're petrified of the inevitable return to the doldrums (see 1980-1999). It is better to have no F1 than an F1 whose rules are written by Ferrari.

"The rules should be written by us" - surely he means by Ferrari? It emerges in Autosport this week that the even-handed and fair-minded Cruderia, universally loved as it is for its overall sense of fair play, has had final veto on the rules by which their competitors must race since 1998. So there you have it everybody: Our sport and its results have been corrupted and manipulated for over 10 years. The fans and other teams are but clowns in the Ferrari circus. I wonder if Schumacher was actually as good as we think? Or was it Ferrari manipulation of the rules to suit their car best that won his 5 titles with them? Hmmmm....

Well that's a first, Fry not shouting the odds! For the last 5 years he's rocked up at virtually every GP like a wide-eyed Peter Pan proclaiming some significant development step or other that will sweep them to certain victory. I reckon Brawn has told him to keep his cakehole shut, and not before time!

There is a precedent and no-one kicked off before. There has been a two-tier F1 before. Towards the end of the Turbo Era, normally-aspirated cars were given certain advantages over turbos woth regard to fuel, etc..

pazzini: It is a well-known fact that Brundle's qualifying let him down. However, I must point out that during their 2 seasons together at Benetton, Brundle outscored Schumacher over the second half of season 1 and the first half of season 2. Not too shabby I think you'll agree, especially as no-one else has even come close to Schumacher in the same car.

Please God let them be serious this time. It's time for World Titles to be won on the track and not in secret agreements between Ferrari and the FIA, and for the winners of the Titles to be paid the same as everybody else. Your casual fan (who probably counts for 90% of the viewing public) won't know the difference if one of the other teams paints their cars red. Sod off and take Mosley with you!

thedukeofshred: There is no proof that he didn't sign that contract either matey, so where are these facts you're telling me to get right? Obviously Schumacher was better, but on the odd occasion that Barrichello was quicker he was told to slow down and let Schumacher through - FACT!

davratta - I hope you're right and they not only get pulled out of F1 but also that their road cars disappear too. The recent management have perfected the art of winning Championships by political chicanery and are a disgrace to Enzo's name.

It's hilarious that Barrichello, professional contracted no.2 for umpteen years at Ferrari, is kicking off now. Any driver signing a contract to come 2nd at all times should not be in F1. He's only there because Brawn need a test driver to help set the car up for Button to win.

*chortle* No wonder they've fallen out with the FIA. In previous years they'd have disqualified everybody finishing ahead of of the Cruderia.

Barrichello made his bed when he traded any chances of winning the Championship for cash and signed a contract to come 2nd to Schumacher for many years, which a real racing driver would never do. Any so-called 'driver' who contractually agrees to do this is not fit to be in F1. His friend Senna would've disowned him for it and no doubt has been spinning in his grave ever since.

Rubbish. I would venture that over 50% of F1 fans are casual fans and don't know about the chicanery behind the scenes. It stands to reason that the majority of armchair fans recognise, rather than support Ferrari as theirs is the most prominent brand. However most real fans hate them for holding the sport to ransom and having a special deal with Bernie whereby they get more prize money for winning the same prize!

Donington's impending and inevitable failure to deliver is the least most surprising news in the history of F1. And Bernie always knew it - it was just another method of forcing Silverstone and the UK Govt. to invest more and fill his pockets.

Easyrider: How come you didn't have the same opinion about Ferrari when Schumacher parked in Monaco qualifying? Ferrari supported his story by producing telemetry, and in doing so attempted to mislead the Stewards.

To: Nevermind & niceguy007: I think you've got the wrong end of the stick lads. "Suspended" means that they'll only be banned for 3 races if further facts emerge or if they do something else wrong. After 12 months the threat of a ban is lifted. Fair punishment

Fry just can't help himself can he? He's spent the last 3 years turning up at every race saying Honda were going to win it due to some new development or other, he's kept quiet for a while under Brawn but now he's at it again! If his usual predictions are anything to go by they'll remain sponsorless for the whole year!

No battery of high-powered lawyers? Whitmarsh appearing alone? Quite clearly the deal has already been done and McLaren know what they're getting. No doubt Ron's resignation and Mercedes' agreement not to withdraw were part of that deal.

Ron Dennis has even moved himself away from the races to stop Max's hateful campaign against him. How can the FIA allow him to use them as the instrument to continually bludgeon McLaren/Dennis? Mosley was elected on a ticket of removing Balestre's dictatorial control, but has become much worse that JMB ever was. He's a hateful old man bringing down the sport and needs stopping before it's too late.

Don't tell me - it was Ron Dennis, everything else is his fault, so why not blame him for this? BAN HIM! BAN HIM NOW!

To follow Bernie's logic, almost every time a team/driver cheats, someone loses points/prize money. So where were the bans for: Ferrari team orders, Schumacher parking in Monaco qualifying, Toyota flexible wings, Benetton plank, etc. It's a McLaren witch-hunt, end of.

For goodness' sake. What are we saying here? That no-one has ever lied in sport? F1? Cheating, as in dodgy traction control, thinner planks, flexible wings, water-cooled brakes, parking on-track in qualifying, etc. is itself a lie to the authorities and other competitors. It's the nature of the intensity of the competition so stop being so bloody pompous about it.

"Infected by a culture of dishonesty" - surely he means the FIA/Ferrari alliance rather than McLaren?

What the Stewards are actually saying is that they ruled Trulli out on the mere say-so of Hamilton/McLaren and have now had to reverse the decision as their word has been disproved? Do you think it's a little naive to rule on an incident based entirely on asking the driver if he's guilty or not? Idiots the lot of them.

Kubica's mistake. Vettel defended properly, as one would expect from an ambitious driver, Kubica had space to run wider and would still have come out of the corner ahead, but chose to squeeze Vettel who then understeered out in to him.

Sorry but McLaren have cocked up here. They misinterpreted the rules and gave the position back by telling Lewis to slow down, even though he didn't have to - Trulli took the position back as Lewis slowed down - not Toyota's/Trulli's fault that Lewis slowed down and they legitimately took the place back.

I expect that, as usual, the outcome of the FIA appeal will depend entirely on how well Ferrari do in relation to the 'diffuser' teams. If Ferrari do well, the diffusers will be OK'd, if not, sufficient points will be deducted from Brawn/Williams/Toyota (and probably McLaren for good measure because their paint-job is unacceptable) to ensure Ferrari lead the Championship.

Alonso and Briatore disagreeing with the FIA? Watch out for a few 'coincidental' disqualifications, demotions and fines for Renault/Alonso this year from the Stewards...

The fact that Nakajima in the Williams set the fastest time today, beating the McLaren by half a second still showed how slow the McLaren is I'm afraid. Clearly in the ideal conditions the frontrunners would have bettered their times proportionally.

Here's your problem with this: Massa only scored more wins in 08 because Spa was stolen from Hamilton and given to Massa. The beauty of the points system was that it at least gave Hamilton the chance to redress the disgraceful theft, e.g. when the Stewards f**k up you can sort it out.

Much as I loved his bravery in the car, Mansell is talking out of his backside. When he won the WC his car was far, far better than anything else in the field. Hamilton won in arguably the second best car in the field. At most it was equal best in the field.

Quite right Ferrari27. Although you have the key personnel wrong - it was the arrival of Jean Todt and Schumacher and the re-emergence of de Montezemolo and their peerless cheating and manipulation of the authorities that brought them back to the fore.

He keeps banging on about how much the drivers earn to defend the superlicence price hike, but what the hell has how much they earn got to do with it? If Toyota want to raise the price of their cars, do they justify it by trying to prove how much their customers' incomes are? No. They justify it by either telling us how they've made their cars/service better, or by citing increased costs of manufacture. Therefore the onus is on the FIA to demonstrate how their service to the drivers is improving, or that their costs have risen. There isn't a single other service provider who is raising their prices in the current climate - quite the contrary in fact.

And can someone tell me why Lemmy from Motorhead is holding a voice recorder up to Mosley?

ronn: What's the car being beautiful got to do with anything? Why would McLaren fans be jealous of a team that colludes with the authorities to win in the only way it knows - manipulation? Your beloved Cruderia have stolen no end of Championships by getting their competitors outlawed after they've passed scrutineering at many GP's and extorted bigger prize money that the others. Ferrari NEVER win on a level playing field mate.

fastrack - did it escape your attention that Ferrari were also-rans for 21 years between Scheckter and Schumacher? Nobody cared then because they were losers mate, and every time they threatened to withdraw we all laughed. As soon as they struggle again (hopefully this year now they can no longer rely on FIArrari cheating for them), nobody will care if they withdraw.

robson - Mercedes would call their commemorative car the VDFC, for Victory Despite Ferrari Cheating.

To Robson. Did it escape your red-tinted attention that up until the Schumacher era McLaren had won more Championships than the hypocritical cheats at Maranello in half the time? For goodness' sake read something else other than Ferrari propaganda mate.

Then Ferrari and Ecclestone/Mosley have colluded to weight the sport in their favour haven't they? Why is one team's prize bigger than the other for winning the same Championship? When Ferrari win a Championship they are given a competitive advantage over the other teams for the following year. No other sport gives more prize money to one competitor over another for the same trophy. And they've quite clearly received more than financial help over the last few years: sudden outlawing of Michelin tyres and mass damping gave them Championships, along with the sustained harrassment of McLaren and Hamilton. And Honda may not have withdrawn if they'd received some of the extra cash, so this corruption may still bring down the sport. And how is the extra money to be justified once Max's declared budget reduction campaign is delivered?

Button is a Ricardo Patrese or an Elio de Angelis. Their style of exceptionally smooth driving, mechanical sympathy and taking few risks mean that they were/are a great no.2 but not quite a no.1. In the best car he'd win perhaps 5 or 6 GPs but no more as he'll always have a much more aggressive top driver in the other car if it's a top team - e.g. Raikkonen, Hamilton, Kubica and Alonso will always beat him in equal machinery.

Porsche my backside. Last time they had a look (think they gave a prototype engine to Arrows for a trial), they were incredulous when told that their engine was 100BHP down and 100kg overweight on contemporary powerplants! You just have to look at their flagship 911 to see - it's bloody 50 years old, and the Boxster/Cayman is only a smaller version! They don't like investing much in new technology when they've got away with selling cars that have been tweaked since WWII...

Nero fiddles whilst Rome burns. Does he not realise that F1 is now completely in the hands of Ferrari, Mercedes, Toyota, Renault and BMW? If they pull out, you've got no cars Max. You'll either have to promote all of the GP2 teams to F1 and change all the regs to suit the cars, or agree to the Big 5's demands and hand over the sport (unless you want to compensate all the circuits/governments for their investments!). Please FOTA, take our sport out of this dictatorship once and for all - you can't be worse than these grabbing old crones.

As predicted, the future of our beloved sport is now in the hands of a few manufacturers, so that Bernie could amass as big a fortune as possible to hand over to his ex-wife. You couldn't make it up! If I were leading FOTA I would now use their collective bargaining power to laeve F1 without ANY teams, start the alternative championship and keep the money for ourselves. Even in a downturn there are 100s of millions to be made, and billions when the economy recovers. The FIA would then be forced to either compensate the circuits for thier investments, or allow the teams to take over the championship. Job done, f*ck off Bernie and Max!

And where will they get the buses from? Around 90,000 punters on race day? Divided by 50 bus seats that's 1800 bus journeys, the vast majority between 7am and 12 noon? Let's say (charitably) an average of 45 mins return journey, so each bus will complete approximately 7 trips in that time, so circa 257 buses needed. And how will they pay for them? No doubt an additional cost to the punter or included in the ticket price? Either way it'll increase the cost of attending (yet again) - not to mention massive queues for the buses delaying circuit entry...

JoffJacq: Hamilton beat Alonso in his debut season in equal equipment, so take the rose-tinted spectacles off. And as for Schumacher - a great driver but the nagging doubt will always be there about never having to beat the established benchmark in the same equipment (see Prost beating Lauda, Senna beating Prost, Hamilton beating Alonso in same machinery). Schumacher preferred to ensure that no top-line driver was recruited alongside him, and that his team-mate was contractually obliged to let him win.

j0118: It's a;ways entertaining to see poor losers smarting after not even being able to win with the Authorities unfairly penalising McLaren all season. The FIArrari gave them the $100m fine as punishment, then docked about 15 points over the season and your lot STILL lost. Heh heh.

Why don't they just commission replicas of the trophies for McLaren to display to potential sponsors?

"planetpoorlosers.cheat"

Unlike you Eddie, he won't compromise his racing principles and contractually agree not to win if his team-mate is anywhere near. He's paid to win, not to lose like you were.

Cheating hypocrites Ferrari do not deserve such a fair-minded gentleman in their car. It is such a shame that such an honourable man is tainted by their political games.

Since I was a child I always wanted a Ferrari, but now I wouldn't have one if I could afford one. Their ethics, hypocrisy and political conspiracies are utterly disgusting. They are bad winners but even worse losers. The current people at Ferrari are a disgrace to a world-wide brand with such heritage, built by honest hard working racers.

We should be delighted for the sport that depite Ferrari's chicanery and politics, combined with the FIA's hateful and disproportionate vendetta, McLaren and Hamilton's professionalism and quality won through. However I sympathise with Massa, who is a true gentleman and sporting competitor. Ferrari do not deserve a driver of such integrity and honesty, and I hope he wins a Championship in the future, as long as it's not with Ferrari.

Any chance of a response with factual substance CuoreRosso? Or just the empty rhetoric we've become accustomed to from delusional Ferrari brainwashees?

They won't need the voodoo thing for a puncture. I've always thought it strange that Hamilton's Bridgestones often fail in a pivotal race? Nothing to do with Bridgestone's 'special relationship' with Ferrari I'm sure. Naturally the blinkered Ferrari apologists here will cite Hamilton's aggression as the reason - in which case why don't Raikkonnen's fail as often? No-one is harder on thier equipment than him...

Robson you are deluded and have no self-awareness whatsoever! How can you say 'objectively' after slagging the British off with sweeping generalisations and then going on to cite Massa's unreliability/pitstop woes as the reason he's not champ! If you were being objective you would also have mentioned the 20-odd points FIArrari have fleeced him for you red-blinkered fool.

As long as FIArrari don't interfere as per usual, it's in the bag...

KubicaFTW - you make a fair point about the argument being flawed only taking into account 1 year. However factor in the point that it was Hamilton's maiden season and double champ Alonso should have caned him, as he has Piquet. Instead, Hamilton pipped him in the table and more importantly reduced him to childish rantings and 'grassing up' McLaren. Alonso was soundly beaten in terms of mental strength.