So now we know: some banks are too big to fail and some Formula One teams (well, one F1 team) is too big to discipline. The FIA says it will take no action over the use of Team Orders despite the fact that the current rules were created in response to Ferrari's (then legal) use of them in an earlier race.
When Rubens Barrichello was beating Michael Schumacher into a distant second place in the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix, Ferrari played the game properly and honestly - they told Rubino to let Schumacher catch and pass him.
The furore that followed demonstrated a lack of understanding of the sport by many, especially those who had bet at long odds on a Barrichello victory. For the avoidance of doubt, F1 is and always has been a team sport and team managers, until then, always had the right to decide on the finishing order of their cars so as to maximise the points for the team and improve the prospects of the chosen driver winning the driver's championship.
F1 made a serious error of judgement: it acknowledged the team's right to impose team orders - and then, instead of telling the gambling fraternity that they didn't understand the sport and that it was their own fault for betting on an outcome that could be varied within the rules, the governing body outlawed team orders.
The decision was tantamount to saying that a soccer team could not nominate a striker to whom, in choreographed plays, would receive the ball and score the goal.
The FIA, in its 2002 ruling, said Ferrari had a "long-standing and traditional right of a team to decree the finishing order of its drivers." It went on to say "The FIA deplores the manner in which team orders were given and executed [but it is] impossible to sanction the two drivers, because they were both contractually bound to execute orders given by the team."
But the fact that the rule was wrong - and not in the spirit of the sport - it was the rule.
And as a rule, all teams are supposed to abide by it. Including Ferrari.
In the German GP at Hockenheim this year, Ferrari told Felipe Massa to move aside to let his team-mate Fernando Alonso pass. Alonso was sheepish. Massa was incandescent. The race was shaping up to be his first win since he was (literally) knocked out of the sport by a piece of suspension that fell off (ironically) Barricello's BrawnGP and bounced up into his helmet causing head injuries that made some fear first for his life and then for his ability to return to top flight racing. In Hungary, he was proving the doubters wrong.
Then came the instruction: it said that Alonso was quicker (repeated) even though the margins were at best tight and was then followed up by the bizarre request that Massa confirm that he understood the message. It was, everyone knew, not the message he needed to understand but its subtext: let Alonso catch and pass.
After Massa blatantly slowed and moved over so Alonso could pass him on the racing line, his pit crew called him again - this time to say well done and apologise. Massa, for his part, glued himself to Alonso's rear wing making it absolutely plain that he had not been slower.
After the race, Alonso said Massa had slid wide; Massa said he had not made a mistake.
There was another outcry: pit lane journalists and commentators were all furious. The stewards agreed: Ferrari had cheated. A fine of USD100,000 was imposed on the team. For Ferrari, that's gnat's piss.
And so the FIA, now headed by former Ferrari team boss who was responsible for the 2002 orders, was invited by the stewards to review the decision. Their file and evidence was sent to the FIA.
Yesterday, the FIA World Council decided that the decision of the stewards had been a sufficient penalty: "After an in-depth analysis of all reports, statements and documents submitted, the judging body has decided to confirm the stewards' decision of a USD100,000 fine."
That was at best a cop-out. and worse it raises questions as to the FIA's ability to govern the sport. It is merely the latest in a series of decisions that brings the organisation itself into disrepute.
The correct decision would have been to dock Ferrari the points it gained from the 1-2 victory in Germany. The drivers' points ideally should have been reversed (they were undoubtedly first and second on merit and so no other drivers or teams were disadvantaged by the team orders: it was the order of finishing that was open to question) but there is probably no mechanism for the FIA to do that.
And Ferrari should have been handed a substantial fine: in 2002, the total fines of USD1 million were not for fixing the result, it was for bad behaviour on the podium when, in a rare moment of apparent grace, Schumacher refused to take the top spot on the podium or the winner's trophy. How much more seriously is the sport brought into disrepute by Ferrari's cheating - obvious or otherwise?
What now: well, Alonso's gain and Massa's loss were (aside from kudos) seven points - a difference under the new scoring rules which makes team orders extra-valuable.
The FIA says it will "review" the rule. That's dumb. It should be abolished. It should never have been made in the first place. If gamblers don't understand the sport they bet on, that's their tough luck. Also, if they know that the result can be interfered with at the whim of a team manager, then they will be less inclined to bet on it. Ironically, by legitimising race fixing (in limited circumstances) it frees it from the risks that gambling (as in e.g. the current Pakistan cricket scandal) brings.
The FIA World Council also had to fix the mess over race fixing in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. While teams and drivers are licensed, team principles and managers are not: so the purported banning of Flavio Briatore was ultra vires and has had to be set aside. From the beginning of next season "a minimum of six people per competitor, including the team principal, sporting director, team manager, technical director and two race engineers," must be licensed and that licence can be suspended, cancelled or revoked if that person is held to be guilty of malpractice.
