09-14-2007, 11:34 AM
G.Irish Wrote:I don't know what the rule is on that. I couldn't really see punishing a team if another team's personnel decided to give away secrets.
Thats the biggest reasons I think this whole thing just fuels the media circus, and nothing else here. At the end of the day, it does nothing but hurt the sport and drive away fans. IMO, sharing team secrets and spying for technical details has been going on as long as racing has been going on. Teams are photographing all the other teams to look at details on the cars, watch them on track, watch them in the pits, and so on. Team secrets are 'shared' when mechanics, crew, engineers move from one team to another (this happens quite often). It would be no surprise to me if technical documents were floated around as well - but I have no evidence to support that one.
If this is what it appears to be on the surface - one team member sharing engineering details and setup notes with another team - why is the FIA involved? What rules have been broken? Certainly there is an ethical dilemma of what to do with technical details brought to your team about your competitors, but if I were in the same position I'd try to learn whatever I could about it and if I could apply it to my own team I would. They should let the teams handle this internally I think but things on Planet BernieÔäó work differently.