McLaren has been stripped of its constructors championship points and fined £49.2m in the latest verdict from motorsport's governing body, the FIA, in F1's spying row. But Lewis Hamilton's world title bid appears to be still on track.The Woking team had originally escaped penalty in investigations surrounding the exchange of confidential Ferrari data between one of McLaren's top engineers and a source in the Italian operation. But fresh evidence was presented to the FIA's World Motor Sport Council today, and it elected to impose the points and cash penalty - but not to dock any points from either of McLaren's drivers, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.The full details of the FIA's verdict and the reasoning behind it have yet to be made public, and McLaren has yet to respond or give any indication of whether it might appeal. It is also being forced to present its 2008 car to the FIA to prove that it contains no Ferrari-sourced design features.
Keep coming back to Autocar.co.uk for updates on McLaren's reaction.
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Re: McLaren excluded from F1 championship
Well what can you say! wow, i think this is going to make or break F1 because this so called SPORT isn't what this is all about, its about MONEY. They tried cutting costs for the "poorer teams" and we all now about them don't we! . The idea of it being a SPORT does not exist anymore, its a sort of spygate fiasco, is it really that bad that little gains advantages call it whay you will result in people being fined silly amounts of money, we the public don't benifit the racing is still predictable , well almost! the occasional hiccup by "THE TOP TWO TEAMS" and take your pick wins.All i think this is going to do is the opposite - there be less TV interest,less sponsorship,and thus less profit for media moguls and associated companies, like the saying goes "The king is dead long live the king" . Heres the question- whats going to replace it?