Perhaps you will appreciate this... an article written by :
Thomas O'Keefe [who] is a lawyer in the U.S. Virgin Islands and a senior writer for Atlas F1
In re: The Upcoming FIA Hearing
[As I suspected, it IS a big deal and this is what Ferrari and Michael Schumacher are facing]
You will note the big fuss created out of this. Michael having been in front of the council a number of times before, will face a stern band of bureaucrats eager to punish him. Lastly, read the last paragraph where all mighty King-for-life Ecclestone, seems to have interceded already (at a price) for Michael in front of the old... guard -g making the event somehow less contentious and low key as to avoid a big scandal out of.... well... protocol.
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Standing on Ceremony:
Analysis on the Upcoming FIA Hearing
Monday June 24th, 2002
By Thomas O'Keefe, Senior Writer
The FIA's headquarters at 8, Place de la Concorde, Paris is a fitting place for the execution of judgment on the Team Orders/Podium Ceremony imbroglio growing out of the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix. Back in 1793, French Queen Marie Antoinette ("Let them eat cake"), an Austrian by birth, got her comeuppance at the hands of the Revolutionary Council who put her to death by guillotine set up in the Place de la Concorde.
For Ferrari, the stakes happily are not quite so high and for all the newsprint and electrons spent discussing what happened in the last few yards of the Austrian race, the issues are simply stated: first, did Ferrari violate the Team Orders doctrine as articulated by the FIA's World Motor Sports Council when Jean Todt directed then-leader Rubens Barrichello to lift and allow teammate Michael Schumacher to pass him at the last moment of the Austrian Grand Prix; second, did Schumacher's subsequent stage management of first the podium/rostrum ceremony and then the post-race press conference sufficiently violate the FIA's podium ceremony and press conference protocols to warrant punishment?
Team Orders
Although the feature of the Austrian Grand Prix finish that engendered such angst worldwide amongst Formula One fans was the palpably crass commercial decision by Ferrari team boss Jean Todt to move up Schumacher at the expense of Barrichello, as always, Todt knew what he was doing and his actions were well grounded in FIA case law. (For a full discussion of the legal origins of the Team Orders species, see The FIA's International Court of Appeal: Final Answer, Part II and Part III.)
Briefly stated, in a series of rulings that began with Mika Hakkinen's victory in Jerez 1997 (which was arguably the result of inter-team "collusion," as the FIA called it, between the Williams of Jacques Villenevue and the McLarens of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard that permitted Hakkinen to win the race and Villeneuve to win the World Championship) and continued into the 1998 season (when the World Motor Sports Council revisited the Team Orders issue in an intra-team setting when Coulthard and Hakkinen swapped positions in the 1998 Australian Grand Prix to correct an internal McLaren team mistake, again putting Hakkinen out front), the FIA has struggled to come up with a sensible policy on Team Orders. Like a pronouncement from the Delphi Oracle in Greece, this is what the FIA's World Motor Sports Council finally decided on July 27, 1998, as to the rule on Team Orders:
"There has been considerable misunderstanding of the World Motor Sport Council decision of 18 March 1998 relating to team orders. There is no prohibition of team orders as such. The World Council merely reminded competitors of the longstanding provisions of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code, which prohibit 'any act prejudicial to the interest of any competition' and made it clear that any such act would be penalized.
Two competitions are taking place simultaneously at each Formula One Grand Prix: the World Championship, which extends over sixteen races, and the individual race itself. It is perfectly legitimate for a team to decide that one of its drivers is its Championship contender and that the other will support him. What is not acceptable, in the World Council's view, is any arrangement which interferes with a race and cannot be justified by the relevant team's interest in the Championship, or any arrangement between teams.
Should a case occur, it will be judged on its facts and in the light of longstanding motor sport tradition."
On the face of it, then, it would seem that there is very little wiggle room here and the World Motor Sports Council has its work cut out for it, if it is disposed to punish Ferrari for a violation of the Team Orders doctrine. One possible hook is that the way it was done (blatantly, in the final few feet of the race, as opposed to furtively under the stealth of a pitstop) and when it was done (at an early point in the season, in only the sixth race of a series of seventeen races, when Team Orders was arguably a drastic and premature step for a team to take), which taken together constituted an act prejudicial to the interest of competition "judged on its facts and in the light of longstanding motor sport tradition."
But with the revered five-time World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio the chief beneficiary of Team Orders in historical terms - when he was at both Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz in the 1950s - it is doubtful we will have such a finding by the World Council. Indeed, without Team Orders in 1956, Fangio would be even with Michael Schumacher at four World Championships each; without Team Orders in 1958, Mike Hawthorn would have died in January 1959 never having known the joys of savoring his Championship Season. Put another way, without Team Orders, Stirling Moss may have become World Drivers' Champion in 1956 and 1958, so it is not as if the sporting tradition has not already been impacted by the Team Orders doctrine.
The only other conceivable basis for the World Motors Sports Council to seize upon as a basis for punishment are the prior offenses of one of the alleged perpetrators, Michael Schumacher, who throughout his career has been before the FIA's International Court of Appeal and World Motor Sports Council for a variety of infractions and keeps coming back for more.
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[roflol on that basis alone, how can you not like Michael Schumacher ]
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In 1994, in the context of being called on the carpet for ignoring the black flag for three laps in the 1994 British Grand Prix, the FIA's International Court of Appeal made an extraordinary statement that dismissed Schumacher's "I was just following orders" defense, emphasizing that a driver has personal responsibility for his actions on the track and cannot always hide behind what he is told to do by the team. Said the Court of Appeal:
WHEREAS, in effect the fact of allowing a driver to be the judge of the regularity or irregularity of a penalty imposed during an event would ruin all sporting discipline, all spirit of competition and all competition itself; and
[…]
WHEREAS, although the team is responsible for the instructions which it gave to its driver and which were contrary to the Regulations, the driver is not the subordinate of his team but has a certain liberty which, moreover, is required by the Regulations which he has accepted, and must himself, along with the team, take responsibility for deliberate faults, particularly with regard to the observation of the regulation signals, and his arguments should not for one moment be accepted.
On that occasion, Schumacher paid the price for ignoring the black flag, lost his victory in the British Grand Prix and was disqualified from the next two races that season. Amazingly, Schumacher still won the 1994 World Drivers' Championship, but you can imagine that a duo like Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher never forgot the power of that experience before the FIA in 1994 and how easy it is for sanctions to threaten a Championship Season.
In 1997, Schumacher found himself before the World Motor Sports Council again for his actions in turning in on Jacques Villeneuve at Dry Sack corner at Jerez in 1997 when the World Championship was on the line. As with Austria in 2002, no competitor complained about Schumacher's conduct at the race itself, nor did the stewards of the meeting, so the World Motor Sports Council took up the matter itself as it has again done here. And, after hearing testimony from Schumacher himself, the World Council punished Schumacher by taking away his second place position in the 1997 World Championship, but absolved him of intentional wrongdoing at the critical moment when he turned into the sidepod of Villeneuve's Williams. The World Council concluded that Schumacher's maneuver was an instinctive reaction and although deliberate not made with malice or premeditation.
The World Motor Sports Council rendered its judgement in these terms: "It was a serious error. The World Council decided to exclude Michael Schumacher from the results of the 1997 FIA Formula One World Championship for drivers. The final results of the FIA Formula One World Championship have been modified accordingly. The results of the Constructors' Championship remain unchanged. Michael Schumacher retains his points and victories recorded during the 1997 season. In lieu of any further penalty or fine, Michael Schumacher agreed to participate in the FIA European road safety campaign for a total of seven days in 1998."
In interpreting the action taken by the World Council, Max Mosley explained: "Schumacher did the wrong thing, obviously, but all the evidence points to him reacting instinctively. Had he thought about it, for one second, he would have allowed Villeneuve through. Schumacher is a human being and every now and then he will make a mistake. He admitted he did it deliberately, but instinctively, and it was the wrong thing to do."
As an interesting accident of history, the FIA has announced that Michael Schumacher will be participating, along with Max Mosley, in the latest Euro NCAP launch identifying the most crashworthy vehicles, scheduled for Tuesday, June 25th 2002, in Cologne, Germany - the day before the World Motor Sports Council hearing in Paris. This event will feature an actual live frontal crash test and guest speakers, including Michael Schumacher. Plainly, Schumacher is going to get his community service out of the way this time around even before he shows remorse and is sentenced!
With this record of prior offenses, however, and the emphasis of the FIA on a driver's personal responsibility for his actions out on the track, there is at least a fig leaf of authority for the World Motor Sports Council to say that for Ferrari to have imposed Team Orders this early in the season and for Michael Schumacher to have obeyed them was a violation of the sporting traditions of Grand Prix racing.
But, admittedly, that's a stretch; the FIA would have to be pretty upset at Ferrari to take away constructor points for Austria 2002, particularly when by the time of Nurburgring 2002, the Scuderia had shown itself to have learned from its mistakes and to be capable of acting in a politically correct manner, by permitting Barrichello to win the race ahead of Schumacher, in identical circumstances to that faced in Austria.
The Podium Ceremony
United States Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. once said that "hard cases make bad law" and that same Jerez 1997 race that produced the reprimand of Michael Schumacher and Team Orders lore also produced the one prior case law precedent for podium ceremony infractions against which Schumacher's conduct may be measured.
This time it was not a competitor that was in the dock before the World Motor Sports Council on a podium ceremony rap, but the Mayor of Jerez, Spain, who apparently got out of line and violated protocol on this most significant of podium ceremonies at the end of the 1997 European Grand Prix, which marked Mika Hakkinen's first ever win and Jacques Villeneuve's one and only World Championship.
Summoned to the same World Motor Sports Council as was Michael Schumacher, Mayor Pacheco of Jerez clarified what occurred and "explained that there had been a misunderstanding and that the World Council could be assured that this would never happen again." What was this sideshow all about?
It seems that the podium ceremony was disrupted by Mayor Pacheco and other local government officials jockeying for position and visibility at this widely televised moment. "The disruption caused embarrassment and inconvenience to those presenting the trophies," according to a report from the World Council's meeting on December 12th 1997. But the World Council accepted Mayor Pacheco's explanations and the sanction previously imposed on Jerez for the podium ceremony infraction was removed.
What are the FIA's rules of the podium ceremony, and did Michael Schumacher tamper with them sufficiently to warrant a sanction being imposed on him for importuning Rubens to take the top spot on the podium and the center spot in the press conference room?
Rule 170 of the FIA's 2002 Formula One Sporting Regulations (February 18th 2002 edition) is entitled "Podium Ceremony" and in its entirety reads as follows: "The drivers finishing the race in 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions and a representative of the winning constructors must attend the prize-giving ceremony on the podium and abide by the podium procedure set out in Appendix 3 (except Monaco); and immediately thereafter make themselves available for a period of 90 minutes for the purpose of television unilateral interviews and press conference in the media centre."
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-lol ... one can see Bernie Ecclestone's influence in this ruling I suppose... i.e. 90 minutes of TV interviews
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Appendix 3 of the Sporting Regulations is a more detailed list of rules implementing Rule 170, covering such matters as the place where the champagne and trophies should be located and even the color of the carpet ('"the podium and steps should be covered in green or dark blue carpet"). The size, weight and form of trophy are described and the ideal position for the location of TV camera is addressed.
A section called "Podium Protocol" is included in Appendix 3 which states that "the winning driver's award will be presented by the head of state or the prime minister of the host country or the FIA President." The second and third drivers' awards are to be presented by the President of the national sporting authority of the host country "unless local circumstances require an additional dignitary to be present."
Finally, a cautionary warning: "an invitation will be issued to each person attending the podium ceremony, with clear instructions as to the procedures to follow." A Master of Ceremonies, Protocol, Dignitaries, Anthems, Flags - all very proper and precise. No surprises, except one left over from Dan Gurney and his 1967 Le Mans victory, the first-ever use of the bubbly to spray competitors and team bosses rather than to drink it. Quoth Appendix 3: "When the champagne shower begins, music should be played. This should not start until the presenters have left the podium."
In light of these principles of Podium Protocol, and in view of the Mayor Pacheco precedent which was a mild misdemeanor by comparison to what Schumacher did, the World Motor Sports Council will undoubtedly sanction Schumacher for thumbing his nose at the FIA and, to the FIA's way of thinking, holding the sport up to contempt and ridicule before the entire sporting world - as Schumacher strong-armed an unwilling (but deserving) Rubens Barrichello on to the coveted top spot on the podium rostrum, thus causing the wrong national anthem to be played (the German anthem, not the Brazilian anthem, was heard) and causing the trophy handed to him by Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel to be given to Rubens having the effect of giving the first and second place trophies to arguably the wrong drivers, making a mockery of the whole ceremony. Rubens Barrichello attempted to mitigate these violations of protocol by inviting Schumacher up to share the top spot on the podium. Juan Pablo Montoya stood by looking amused at the tangled web being woven by the two Ferrari teammates.
Not content with manipulating the podium ceremony, Schumacher carried through with what may be regarded by the FIA as evidence of his further insolence and orchestrated the post-race press conference so that Barrichello, not Schumacher, ended up fielding the questions from the press from the center spot on the dais, as if he were the winner. Following Team Orders, Rubens went along with the charade.
To be sure, this is not the first time a podium ceremony at a major sporting event somehow got out of control. Eons ago, the Mexico City Olympic Games of 1968 had a memorable podium ceremony where, in the midst of an emerging Civil Rights movement in the United States and anti-war sentiment developing towards the Vietnam War, two American sprinters, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, consciously designed a medal ceremony to communicate to the world the principle that America's civil rights movements had not gone far enough in eliminating the disparities between the races.
Gold medalist Smith and Bronze medalist Carlos raised their black-gloved fists and, as the Star-Spangled Banner played, the two bowed their heads instead of looking toward the flag as is customary. Believe it or not, the Olympic Committee was so upset at these actions that Smith and Carlos were suspended from their national track team and banned from the Olympic Village, where the athletes lived during the games. "I am embarrassed; all of us are embarrassed," said Everett Barnes at the time, who was acting director of the U.S. Olympic committee, "it makes our country look like the devil."
Turning to Schumacher's antics at Austria, while pretty tame by comparison to Mexico City 1968, the FIA will have the same institutional instincts as did the Olympic committee then: to punish someone, somehow.
As a sporting authority, although it may appear to exalt form over substance, Schumacher's behavior in the podium ceremony and in the press conference was a slap in the face that must be sanctioned in the interests of what the FIA variously calls "sporting discipline" or "longstanding motor sport tradition." Ironically, the obvious punishment to mete out is the one Schumacher seems to have recommended himself when he indicated after it was all over and he had heard the catcalls and whistles of Marie Antoinette's descendents in the grandstands that he had actually lifted a bit when he saw Rubens move over in the dying moments of the race, considering whether he should pass. On his left on the same stretch of road sat Rubens, similarly hoping that Michael would ignore the orders from on high and stay behind Rubens in second place. But it was not to be and now the World Motor Sport Council's job is to make retribution for that momentary lapse of judgment, however well-grounded in the FIA's statutes and regulations.
Closure
The solution for all sides is now plain. Ferrari cannot be punished for taking an "act prejudicial to the interest of any competition" because there is no prohibition of Team Orders as such and it seems to be inter-team collusion, not intra-team arrangements, that would be the kind of Team Orders to attract the FIA's attention.
Michael Schumacher can and will be punished - not for following Team Orders on the track, but for giving them to his helpless and hapless teammate Barrichello on the podium and in the press conference, who innocently complied.
Result? Rubens will be awarded his third career victory as the winner of the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix, Michael will be classified second and, taken together with further community service of the kind he participated in the day before the World Council hearing in the Euro NCAP launch, the FIA will consider itself vindicated and Michael chastised in a manner proportionate to the matter in question.
There is one last possibility to consider.
Reports suggest that Bernie Ecclestone summoned Jean Todt and Michael Schumacher to 'The Bus' on the weekend of the Nurburgring race for a discussion of some kind. We also know that one of the face-saving mechanisms available to the parties is a last minute offer of settlement by Ferrari, accepted by the World Council, which would include the re-classified positions feature listed above. For people who are used to waiting until the last corner of the last lap to make decisions, don't be surprised if at the eleventh hour that is the denouement to all this.
Hard cases make bad law.
Thomas O'Keefe is a lawyer in the U.S. Virgin Islands and a senior writer for Atlas F1
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