sooooo.... a piece of fake news got us a thread with 60 odd posts. Bernie getting the sport media attention again, or the FIA bottling it. Or even (unlikely) potential common sense.
Well, I barely know what to say! As I mentioned earlier, I was very surprised by such a radical change at such short notice, but I confess that I had not expected a complete reversal within just hours of the story breaking. All I can say is that some ' body's ' PR department has dropped a gigantic clanger. FIA (and Toadt), I'm looking at you! What the hell is going on releasing a story like this and turning it around so quickly? - Amateurish beyond belief; I am almost as disgusted as I am amused. Whatever next…
Was it ever officially released? I thought autosport just picked up on a couple of rumours, which admittedly did indicate some directive, maybe it wasn't as reported? Who knows?
It does't seem to far fetched to say that maybe legal action was involved. Did teams complain that it wasn't cost cutting as the FIA claimed and rather a way to manipulate the season, mid-season.
ohh, well um thats a bit odd. Wasn't expecting that. The article doesn't seem clear (surprise surprise) Will it be banned for Monaco onwards or not banned at all?
I read it as postponed till further notice. But after this who knows? I hope the BBC pick up on this story in the pre-race show.
Who knows indeed ! Not even a whisper of a tip-off at work today - unusual in itself. I suppose it is possible that Autosport saw an opportunity with the initial (and convenient) 'leak', which appears to have been presented as an accidental slip of a Tweet from someone who 'normally' doesn't Tweet publicly. But I confess this is mere conjecture on my part. In a sense we are all adding impetus to the gossip, and no doubt Autosport have gained a huge range of new potential customers. (Oh no, not the cynic again……
Hopefully Autosport will be able to explain things tomorrow, I will not be amused if this story is just swept under the carpet.
haha the title now looks like it was written by borat. The FIA is NOOOT clamping down on blown diffusers. FIA clamp down on blown diffusers slash not FIA clamp down on blown diffusers...................................................................................NAWT!!
It could have been a case of opportunistic news management. Jonathan Noble claimed to have been working on the story on Tuesday, and the hastily deleted tweet from @RealSimonB came mid- to late-afternoon (followed by one between 17h and 18h: "Rumours eh!!!"). The directive was supposedly sent to the teams following the Turkish GP, up to ten days ago. Why wasn't it leaked (or Autosport reported) until late yesterday? I suspect the teams immediately reacted against Directive 15 when they received it, which is why its existence was kept hushed up. The real news yesterday was that the FIA were going to retract it but in order to whip up a bit of interest (and controversy) the original story was put out first. I find it difficult to believe the FIA's decision to retract the directive was the direct effect of its content having been leaked. News management is a blight on the reputation of the fourth estate, but I expect (I think reasonably) sports reporting to be fairly straight - unmanaged, that is. Perhaps, within F1 circles, the FIA's decision on Directive 15 was expected last night and that's why discussion about it was rife, which could be how Jonathan Noble came to hear about it. It could be that his original story was straightforward, honest reporting and the follow-up was as much a surprise to him those of us foruming at the mouth about it. I'd be very disappointed if he was involved in manipulating the story (i.e. publishing a non-story, reporting on a situation he knew was invalid because of expected subsequent events). There aren't many reasons to respect Autosport. The writing quality is quite ****, it's almost never ahead of the curve in reporting a story, and it's incredibly prissy about protecting its content. Because it has to check and double-check the authenticity of its stories (the reason why it's slower than other media outlets to publish them), however, means I take it to be authoritative and honest. If it's getting into the game of whipping up a storm to sell more copy (as cosi suspects) then I don't really see what validity it can have in the future.
They had quotes from Brawn and Horner, so I assume the original story was genuine. That's exactly what I want to know, it'll have a massive effect in Monaco. They say it's top of the agenda for the next TWG meeting, presumably that's this weekend.
Not sure if this is just a consiquence of success, more likely one team has developed a fantastic system that other teams can't replicate because they can't test it adiquatly under the current rules. So the FIA have to ban it or re-introduce in season testing so other teams can develop.
Then add a few weeks for teams to make the adjustment. I'll probably not kick in till 2012 in the end.
Cheers. I think the last high profile meeting they had was before Monza after the team orders scandal, which they subsequently swept under the carpet. I wonder if they'll be as dismissive now it wouldn't favour Ferrari...
Surely the best time to implement the rule change if they decided to do it would be at the start of the four week break to give teams the most time to adapt to it.
Matt Goss disagrees: Anyway, it appears the FIA retracted the ban on >10% full-throttle emissions because they didn't know how to enforce it. Has that ever given them pause for thought before?
