At the FIA Formula 1 French Grand Prix at Circuit de Nevers, Felipe Massa of Ferrari pulled off a victory over his teammate Kimi Raikkonen. But that’s not the really interesting (and controversial) event of the weekend. Rather, it was what could be construed as the ongoing persecution of McLaren at the hands of the FIA.

In the opening laps of the race, Raikkonen opened a considerable lead over his Brazilian teammate. With all but a sure win assured for the Finn, he was cruising along, opening a gap against P2 and the rest of the field. All of a sudden, the 2007 World Champion slowed, allowing Massa to slip past. The world feed showed that the right side exhaust piping - made of incredible durable AND hard to fabricate inconel - was come unglued and was flailing like a kid’s arm hanging out the side of a car window. Needless to say, if it came completely undone, it could have become a dangerous projectile that could seriously injure or potentially kill a driver following the Ferrari. Despite this danger, the team did NOT pull Raikkonen in. Rather, he stayed on putting in lap after of lap. The FIA, the governing motorsports body that regulates F1 and world stage motorsports, also did not black flag the Finn nor tell Ferrari to pull their man and inspect the car / make a repair so that driver safety, that of Raikkonen and others, could be assured. Doesn’t sound quite right, does it?

On the flip side of the coin, Lewis Hamilton - who is no favorite of mine - was given a drive-through penalty for passing Sebastien Vettel of Scuderia Toro Rosso with somewhat questionable maneuvers. He had passed the German driver, only to cut a high speed corner short. Now, if the Brit had cut the corner to pass Vettel that I would more than understand but he was already past the German driver when he cut the corner. So did he really gain a position by doing so? It’s an arguable point at best, but the FIA decided it was enough to hand down the drive through (the pits) penalty.

The FIA had handed down the biggest fine ever on a team, totaling $100 million on the British team, last year after the Stepney gate incident. I agree with most pundits that Ferrari has the FIA in their pockets to a certain extent, and I maintain that the true spirit of competition would motivate the FIA to be fair in 2008. Apparently, the FIA seems to think otherwise.