08/09/2008
NEWS STORY
As part of the official process of checking sample powerplants from each of the six engine manufacturers, the FIA is to investigate the engine Felipe Massa used at Spa at the weekend.
The technical briefing issue at the end of the Belgian GP weekend, included the following announcement: "The engine of car number 02 is kept sealed in order to carry out further checks according to Article 5 of the 2008 FIA Formula One Technical Regulations. These checks will be done before the Italian GP."
The Ferrari powerplant is the second to be investigated by the FIA, the first being the unit used by Lewis Hamilton in the German GP.
Although the FIA has made no secret of its intention to randomly check all engines to ensure that they fully comply with the current regulations, most notably the freeze on all engine development, the fact that the McLaren unit was selected first led to a field day for conspiracy theorists.