Ferrari row: 'No proof' posted in F109 | 09 | 2010

SO, FERRARI escape any further punishment — apart from the original $100,000 fine — in the row over Hockenheim team orders mess. Why? Because, according to FIA president Jean Todt, there was not enough evidence to prove it had broken the rules.

"Not enough evidence?", I hear you cry. "Did the FIA and the World Motor Sports' Council not hear the same radio instructions as millions of TV viewers did as they watched the mess unfold during the German Grand Prix?"

Well, it would appear the instructions given to Felipe Massa to allow team-mate Fernando Alonso to pass him was not enough to find Ferrari guilty.

Todt — the former Ferrari F1 boss — explained that without proof of team orders being used there was little else the FIA could do.

"Before you say you are guilty, you need to be able to prove that you are guilty," Todt said after the hearing in Paris. "And if you understand all the parts that have been asked, everyone has denied that it was a team order."

But when it was put to the diminutive Frenchman that, despite Ferrari's denials, many people believed the outfit had used team orders, Todt admitted: "I tend to agree as well."

Rather leaves to shaking your head in bewilderment really.

JM