14/11/2007
NEWS STORY
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Ahead of Thursday's appeal hearing, which will (hopefully) finally decide who won the 2007 Formula One World Championship - almost four weeks after the last race of the season - F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has threatened to quit should Kimi Raikkonen be 'stripped' of his title.
McLaren is protesting the decision of race stewards at Interlagos who opted not to punish the Williams and BMW drivers, despite fuel irregularities. Previous cases have seen teams punished but not their drivers.
However, McLaren which has felt the full force of the FIA this year, is seeking to appeal the stewards decision, claiming that it has no choice and merely wishes to ensure that the rules are evenly applied.
Should the Williams and BMW drivers be punished and lose their points/placings, this would promote Lewis Hamilton to fourth in the race result, and thereby hand him the championship. The English driver has already said that he doesn't want to win the title by default and recognises Raikkonen as the 2007 champion.
According to The Guardian, Ecclestone, referring to the possibility of Raikkonen 'losing' the title, said: "If anyone thinks that's the best thing for Formula One then I'd have very serious thoughts about me retiring."
"I don’t think anything's going to happen if it goes through," he added, according to The Times. "In my opinion, they don't have to change the results of the race - it's an infringement of the regulations. On the same weekend, McLaren used an extra set of tyres, which they shouldn't have used – that was an infringement - so maybe if anything does happen at this Court of Appeal, maybe they'll treat it exactly the same as the tyres."
Meanwhile, across the globe F1 message boards and forums are inundated with cries of "yes!" and the sincere wish that FIA President Max Mosley might follow suit.