Were McLaren ordered to throw away the 2007 WDC?

[DOCG]

If Hamilton had won the WDC in 2007 there would forever be claims that he did so in a car that should have been illegal. Ferrari would perhaps be entitled to a legal case against it.

Other than the suspicious gearbox issue in Brazil, we should also consider what happened in Shanghai, McLaren left Hamilton out on the most worn tyres I have ever seen on an F1 car, despite LH losing many seconds every lap before he overshot the pit entrance.

Obviously the publicity of officially ending an extremely hyped-up title fight with the rookie sensation would be terrible, hence I believe it may have been decided behind closed doors in Paris.

[Adrian W]

At the time a lot of people believed a deal was done, you can race but you mustn't win the championship, Ron Dennis's relationship with the FIA never recovered.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

McLaren tried to get a couple of cars who finished above Hamilton thrown out of the Brazil results for fueling infringements if I remember correctly? A BMW Sauber?

[Muzzer79]

As I remember it, McLaren were able to clearly demonstrate that the (rather amateur-hour) 'spying' did not result in anything from Ferrari ending up on their car.

[Megaflow]

DOCG said:

If Hamilton had won the WDC in 2007 there would forever be claims that he did so in a car that should have been illegal. Ferrari would perhaps be entitled to a legal case against it.

Other than the suspicious gearbox issue in Brazil, we should also consider what happened in Shanghai, McLaren left Hamilton out on the most worn tyres I have ever seen on an F1 car, despite LH losing many seconds every lap before he overshot the pit entrance.

Obviously the publicity of officially ending an extremely hyped-up title fight with the rookie sensation would be terrible, hence I believe it may have been decided behind closed doors in Paris.

Absolutely convinced of it, and have been ever since 2007.

I have never seen a car with such and apparently terminal gearbox fault magically fix itself before, and that’s before we start talking about what McLaren were doing leaving somebody out on tyres that where literally down to the canvas that everyone else could see as plain as day.

[angrymoby]

Hamilton doesn't talk about it ...the most anyone has ever got out of him is Mark Hughes, when he asked him in 2012 if he ever found out what happened:

“I didn’t know at the time. But I do now. It’s not something I can talk about.”

https://the-race.com/formula-1/the-mysterious-loss...

[skullcandy]

Always thought this

[Boom78]

DOCG said:

….we should also consider what happened in Shanghai, McLaren left Hamilton out on the most worn tyres I have ever seen on an F1 car, despite LH losing many seconds every lap before he overshot the pit entrance.

I remember watching it live screaming at the tv to get him pitted laps before he crashed out, you could see the canvas sticking out the rubber, if we could see it on tv then mclaren and everyone else in the pits also could. Ones of the strangest decisions I’ve seen, that is unless the decision was to throw it away.

[StRemy]

Was the crane incident before or after spy gate?

[jimothyc]

It would also explain why Lewis was quite happy to walk away from McLaren when the right opportunity presented itself.

[Olivera]

Boom78 said:

I remember watching it live screaming at the tv to get him pitted laps before he crashed out, you could see the canvas sticking out the rubber, if we could see it on tv then mclaren and everyone else in the pits also could. Ones of the strangest decisions I’ve seen, that is unless the decision was to throw it away.

+1, I remember it vividly - it was extremely odd.

Is there any other example since of a leading team/driver (in the race or WDC) voluntarily keeping a car out to such an extent that the tread came completely off the tyres?

[thegreenhell]

Maybe the team thought it was still 2005 and they had to do the whole race on the same tyres, like the time when Kimi tried to do half a race with a massive flatspot which caused his car to vibrate so much the wheel fell off on the last lap.

[sparta6]

Olivera said:

+1, I remember it vividly - it was extremely odd.

Is there any other example since of a leading team/driver (in the race or WDC) voluntarily keeping a car out to such an extent that the tread came completely off the tyres?

Kimi at McLaren. Tyre exploded

[Sandpit Steve]

angrymoby said:

Hamilton doesn't talk about it ...the most anyone has ever got out of him is Mark Hughes, when he asked him in 2012 if he ever found out what happened:

“I didn’t know at the time. But I do now. It’s not something I can talk about.”

https://the-race.com/formula-1/the-mysterious-loss...

There’s definitely one hell of a story to come out there - once everyone involved is no longer with us.

[angrymoby]

Sandpit Steve said:

There’s definitely one hell of a story to come out there - once everyone involved is no longer with us.

Bernie is 91, so not long ...well, depending on the deal he did with the devil- but knowing Bernie & his deals he's probably stitched Lucifer up good & proper as well

[williamp]

Also remember that Feersri won in Australia with an illegal car, but thr fia overlooked it...

[Muzzer79]

StRemy said:

Was the crane incident before or after spy gate?

That was the European Grand Prix, held at the Nurburgring.

It was the race before Hungary. It was in Budapest that Alonso threatened to go to the FIA if Ron Dennis didn't give him what he wanted at Mclaren.

Ron went to Max Mosley almost immediately, Spygate exploded.

So to answer your question, it was before.

ETA - but I'm not sure why it's relevant?

Hamilton went off in the wet into a gravel trap. He kept his engine running. The crane pulled him out and he got going again to finish in the lower part of the top 10.

[SonicHedgeHog]

It’s almost as if this thread has been started to change the conversation away from Max’s world title that isn’t…

[sidewinder500]

There's nothing to see here, keep on walking

[JoelH]

Muzzer79 said:

As I remember it, McLaren were able to clearly demonstrate that the (rather amateur-hour) 'spying' did not result in anything from Ferrari ending up on their car.

Which didn't mean that they didn't save weeks or months of development on what they did have. In the end McLaren did admit that the data had been seen by far more people in the company than they had originally told the FIA about.