|
TAG have supplied the equipment to the FIA for 11 years now and this is the first time there has been a "problem".
It wasn't a problem during Jerez 1997 when the top 3 on the grid set identical times; the TAG back-up timing machine had produced the same figures.
If TAG had set out to try and arrange a McLaren win then they would have known it wouldn't work. Firstly, there are a heck of a lot of people keeping manual lapcharts just in case of a technical failure. How often have we seen no times for pitstops or the timing monitors go blank midway through a GP? The journalists in the press room who keep lapcharts were also aware of a discrepancy.
Secondly, it would be incredibly damaging for TAG to even contemplate doing such a thing. There is no place to hide in F1 - you will always be found out if you try and do anything wrong.
All I know is that the timing system experienced a number of problems during the weekend as far back as Friday when some drivers' were not registering times whilst out on the track as there were sensor problems. Olivier Panis was an innocent "victim" on Friday when his qualifying time put him one place further down the grid than he should have been. His sector times for Friday Qualifying do not add up to the final time that he registered.
At the end of the day, regardless of who operates the software, there was some sort of malfunction. Perhaps it was the rain that caused it. Problems arise with equipment from time-to-time. Like all those problems they used to have at the Spanish GP when the lights were supposed to go from red to green but, well, it was a standing joke about Spanish wiring. In the end, the lights just go off to signify the start of a race.
I very-much doubt there is any conspiracy. Otherwise Mika would have won Silverstone 1998 as TAG could easily have claimed that Michael DIDN'T cross the line on the way to his pit garage if they wanted to.
|