24/07/2005
NEWS STORY
In recent weeks, indeed months, there has been a refreshing amount of transparency in Formula One, with the FIA, teams and other 'interested parties, tripping over one another as they make documents available to the media, and thereby the public.
Therefore, in light of recent events, one wonders how long we will have to wait before we will be privy to the new evidence, presented by Ron Dennis and Christian Horner, which saw the seven Michelin-shod teams fully exonerated following the Indianapolis debacle.
However, as we await this 'new evidence' being made public, there is a certain amount of confusion as to whose responsibility this is.
Speaking at Hockenheim on Friday, when asked if the evidence will be made available for the public, Ron Dennis said: "It's certainly not for the teams to make that available to you.
"If the FIA chooses to make it available that is for them to decide," he added. "Why? Well primarily because it was their ruling in the first place. We put forward what we believed to be two strong arguments as to why this judgement should effectively be reversed. The process on the day, of course, was between myself representing five of the teams and Red Bull representing itself and the decision was not taken and it could not be taken by the Senate. This was a decision that had to be taken by the World Council, and therefore there was a follow-on process. Coming out of that meeting, if you had asked me, and nobody had asked me, I feel that in all of these instances we should be looking forward and not going back into the past and I think that's the general mood that is coming from all of us sat here is that we should be looking forward and not going back into the past. If it was my decision, and it's not, I think the best thing is to go forward, but there is nothing untoward or controversial in the material that was presented to the senate. But I don't think it's the team's position to provide that material to you."
Asked what the new evidence comprised, he continued: "It was a combination of new material but it was also a re-evaluating and focussing on some other specific issues that were part of the documentation. I would say that the teams had done a competent job at presenting their argument that had perhaps under-stressed one particular aspect of the situation and I would rather leave it there.
"But I for one and I think most of the teams would be more than comfortable and it is for the FIA to decide that, I think it is best to put everything in the past and go forward."
However, an FIA source, has told Pitpass, without the need to resort to Ronspeak that it is not up to the FIA to make the evidence available but the teams' responsibility.
Indeed, the FIA spokesman confirmed to Pitpass that the FIA would be "happy" to release the evidence, but that it is "commercially sensitive" and was given to the governing body "in confidence".
Therefore, despite the new age of transparency that F1 is witnessing, it is highly likely that we might never see this evidence, which is understood to be photographic.