Let me put it this way: what would you say of a rules change in the middle of the Football World Cup that have immediate effect on the result of the championship and that clearly restores the powers that be? The moderates would judge harshly the ineptitude of FIFA, as a minimum, and the radicals would ask for the International Board heads. You could say that any normal person is sick and tired of all that rule tweaking that has rained persistently on the F1 landscape for the first six somber and cloudy years of this century.
There is a division of judgment on the results of these rules changes: some believe their effects are obnoxious while the rest believe they are catastrophic. Look at the transformed pit wall these days and you will see few engineering firms. The “fundamentalists” will argue that we have been adopted by the car industry and this has made the FIA a very powerful entity.
Somehow, it has: definitely, the omniscient FIA can take any flak it wishes. Not being a rule change, but a decision, the "Renault damper affair" (to which it could be added the "Michelin squeeze-out") is the most blatant move or the most stupid (with all its six letters). It defies comprehension, giving them the benefit of doubt. But, let me ask the burning question: if they are so innocent, on the verge of imbecility, and they find so hard to predict the outcomes of the technical decisions, how come they got all that money racing cars? Why, in name of all that is pure, cannot they wait until November to make radical rule readings?
What overwhelms me is the lack of resistance of the field, but I do not know where the bones of the F1 skeleton are any more. This overruling lacks any sign of decency towards the fans, the pilots and the constructors, a thing that seems the norm these days. The flimsiest of arguments supports it, an argument that edges on irony: why did not they declare it movable ballast, as flynfrog explains, beats me. Why they took months to look into the business is beyond normal humans to fathom.
It breaks any hardcore fan's heart to watch the awkward smile in Alonso's face while he tries to downplay the clear fact that the championship has been taken out of his hands. My twisted mind sees it as a possible punishment for his career moves, but, hey, do not believe anything I say. He still trusts in miracles in the most competitive, money-driven auto sport, if you believe the press... well, you never know.
