Whatever else, Felipe wouldn't want it to look as though Fernando had BEATEN him or had pressurised him into an error. That would show that Fernando was BETTER than Felipe and NO-ONE would keep quiet about such a request.
The easy and SENSIBLE solutions would have been to inform Massa that he'd had a (fictitious) technical fault (losing oil, over-heating, vibration) that could NOT have been 'checked' by anyone (except the driver). If they didn't want Felipe to KNOW what had happened, they could have told him to set the 'manetino' to a low fuel consumption setting and he'd have slowed HUGELY. If not, set the Rev Limiter at a lower level, exactly as Renault warned Petrov they would do if he DIDN'T start changing into 7th, sooner.
I am 100% sure that all the OTHER teams have that contingency agreed with a driver and I have few doubts that it's been 'excercised' this year within a few teams. McLaren and 'Red Bush' come to mind!
The ARROGANCE (and stupidity) of FIAt is that they assumed they'd never NEED to worry and, clearly, didn't have such a strategy pre-agreed knowing that they can get away with ANYTHING. We'll see if they turn out to be correct or not..... my guess is that they WILL be proven 'correct' as the FIA will not D*A*R*E to punish them in any realistic manner. And they'll get the rule changed.... because they CAN!
Ian
|
|