FIA summons McLaren

LONDON - McLaren may face a draconian punishment for allegedly persuading the world champion, Lewis Hamilton, to lie before a meeting of stewards after the team was being summoned to appear before the FIA world motor sport council.

The team Tuesday announced that they had sacked Dave Ryan, their sporting director, who had worked for McLaren for 35 years and was at the centre of the controversy, the Guardian reports.

The governing body will review detailed evidence and supporting documentation which they believe show that March 29 Ryan told the -stewards at the Australian grand prix that no instructions had been given to Hamilton to allow Jarno Trulli’s Toyota to pass him when both cars were behind the safety car, knowing that statement to be untrue.

Trulli was initially given a 25-second penalty and Hamilton promoted to third. After the second hearing Hamilton was disqualified and Trulli reinstated.

The FIA has invoked article 151C to summon McLaren to the hearing -accusing them of ‘fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally.’

The FIA said in a statement that McLaren would also answer to charges that they made no attempt to rectify the situation either by contacting the FIA or otherwise.

It said April 2 the McLaren team, at the second hearing before the stewards of the Australian grand prix in Malaysia, made no attempt to correct the untrue -statement of March 29 but, on the -contrary, continued to maintain the statement was true, despite being allowed to listen to a -recording of the team instructing -Hamilton to let Trulli past and despite being given more than one opportunity to correct the false statement.

The FIA also accused McLaren of -getting Hamilton to continue to assert the truth of the false statement given to the -stewards March 29 at the second hearing, while knowing what he was saying to the -stewards was not true.

The hearing threatens to damage the close personal relationship between -Hamilton and the McLaren directors Ron -Dennis and Martin Whitmarsh, both of whom helped steer the British driver’s rise to stardom from a teenage kart racer.

Whitmarsh, who took over as team principal from Dennis at the beginning of March, has already apologised for letting Hamilton down over the affair and the driver offered a wide-ranging apology during the Malaysian grand prix.