Where's the consistency? Renault were let off.

As RacingForIndia pointed out here, Renault are not the new McLaren. The punishment to the individuals involved were similar, for Flavio Briatore read Mike Coughlan, but for the organization itself the punishments were light years apart.

McLaren got the largest sporting fine in history at $100M, were stripped of all their constructors points and were given warning that any other infringement could lead to permanent exclusion. Renault got a two year suspended ban, i.e. a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again.

What are the differences between the cases? McLaren received technical information form Ferrari and some personnel discussed it. It was not clear whether any of the information was used on the McLaren MP4-22. Renault conspired to crash one car to benefit another, putting lives at risk. Incidentally in 2007, Renault were also handed technical details about the McLaren but got off scott free.

No, the real differences are that McLaren's raison d'etre is to be in F1 and that Max Mosley hated Ron Dennis, as opposed to Renault being a big car manufacturer who could walk away tomorrow, whilst Flavio is a business partner of Bernie Ecclestone.

After losing Honda and BMW, it looks like the FIA was not willing to punish a team and risk losing another. But that is a load of rubbish, they have just had to ask the teams to allow a 14th team on the grid for next year - they are not down on teams.

The truth is that the original punishment for McLaren was way in excess of what was necessary, and they found it impossible to match the punishment for Renault in the case of a worse crime. They should have stripped the constructors points for this year at the very least, and a $5M fine wouldn't have been too arduous.

Again, this has been a case of inconsistent punishment, to go along with the inconsistent rule making. There needs to be new governance.

Squiffy.