31/07/2008
NEWS STORY
Following last week's report that Lewis Hamilton's British and German GP winning engine had been retained and sealed "in order to carry out further checks according to Article 5 of the 2008 FIA Formula One Technical Regulations", the conspiracy theorists that frequent many forums and message board had a field day.
Even though a similar check will be carried out on engines from the five other manufacturers, it wasn't long before there were cries of "fix" and "FIA Ferrari bias".
As we previously reported, there was nothing sinister about the move it just so happened that Hamilton's was the first powerplant to be inspected this year to ensure that it fully complies with the current regulations, most notably the freeze on all engine development. Under FIA regulations, a random test on a powerplant provided by each of the six manufacturers takes place to ensure that no modifications have been made.
The engine has now undergone a full investigation to ensure that it is exactly the same as the 'sample' unit submitted to the FIA by Mercedes earlier this year.
In Hungary this morning, the FIA has confirmed that all parts of Hamilton's engine conform to the regulations, and there is no disparity between the unit submitted after the German GP and that provided before the season got underway.
So there!