I am a firm believer that all competitors in any sport have to be treated and seen to be treated equally. How can we trust the FIA disciplinary system to treat teams equally when one team is paid more thna the others, when one team’s involvement is valued more than the others and when there are secret agreements with one team and not the others. When that team is consistently the beneficiary of unique disciplinary findings even the Ferrari fans can’t believe that is fair.

The corollary of course is that as a result of the crooked disciplinary proceedings Ferrari adds to its legend further increasing its ‘historical value’.

At least now that all this is in the open we can now know for certain what Alan Donnelly’s job is. He is Max’s representative in the stewards’ room to make sure that Ferrari’s historical value is taken into consideration. So when Massa was given a fine rather than the customary drive through at Valencia it was because F1 is fixed in Ferrari’s favour. When Massa was awarded the win in Spa it was because F1 is fixed in Ferrari’s favour. When Ferrari was allowed to race and win in Melbourne in 2007 with a car that they knew was illegal it was because F1 is fixed in Ferrari’s favour.

I guess now that this is out in the open any driver who wins a championship in a Ferrari should have an asterisk after his name because it is at best dubious. Any driver who wins a championship in anything other than a Ferrari know he deserves that championship.

What I can see happening is the teams could use this as an excuse to force Bernie and the FIA to agree a new Concorde Agreement. They may well scream at Ferrari for taking so much money, but they will also closely scrutinise the CVC’s finances and demand more money from them. Since both can be done in the same contract negotiation, I can see the next few months being politically noisy (but then what month isn’t in the world of F1?)

Good on them for standing up to him. Finally.