Lauda thinks FIA should punish Ferrari

Niki Lauda thinks Ferrari should receive a bigger penalty for swapping the order of its cars at the recent German grand prix.

A survey by Autoblog showed that 95 per cent of 15,000 respondents want the World Motor Sport Council to inflict more than just the $100,000 fine imposed by the Hockenheim stewards.

27 per cent said the Italian team should be disqualified.

“With the budgets these teams have, $100,000 is nothing at all,” Austrian Lauda said in an interview with RTL.

“If you imagine they have bought themselves a world championship for that, it’s the biggest joke of all.”

On Austrian ‘Servus TV’, former driver Marc Surer agrees that the World Motor Sport Council must act.

“If a team knows that a team order costs $100,000, they will take the cheque to the next race,” he said.

But Spanish motor racing chief Carlos Gracia told AS newspaper that even though Massa’s order was “obvious”, Ferrari has already been punished.

“Nothing will happen (at the World Motor Sport Council),” he said.  “The violation has already been sanctioned, Ferrari declined to appeal, so it’s an issue that has been settled.

“You can’t be punished twice for one wrongdoing,” added Gracia, who said he will push for the FIA to legalise team orders.

© RIF | GMM