It seems that the FIA is feeling a little 'out-weirded' by the ICC these days and has set about resuming its rightful place on top of the eccentric world governing body championship ladder.

Their latest foray into strange and pointless behaviour sees them appointing a special steward to ensure that the ever more petulant Fernando Alonso gets a fair deal at the hands of his team, McLaren. Apparently, Ron Dennis’ assurances that both drivers (Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamiton) will be treated equally, doesn’t carry any weight with the boys and girls at the Place de la Concorde.

Of course, Alonso has been pestering anyone who has any influence at all in the world of motor sport to complain about the dreadful treatment he’s getting at Mclaren. According to Alonso, the bias is obvious and is the reason that Alonso is so far behind in the championship (apparently we need to ignore the fact that he’s only four points down).

'The stupid thing is that with the prancing horses so close behind in the championship, McLaren cannot afford to play silly buggers between teammates'


But, if you complain long enough and loud enough, someone is bound to listen eventually and so it was that the head of the Spanish motor sport confederation, Carlos Garcia, took Alonso's concerns to Max Mosley the head of the FIA. Mosley has a long standing and well publicised dislike of McLaren chief Ron Dennis and so probably welcomed the opportunity to have a fiddle in the internal workings of the team.

What exactly a steward is supposed to do is not immediately apparent. The rules state that team cars need to be identical, but how often is that really achieved? The tremendous complexity of tuning these cars makes it almost impossible for one individual to determine if the car is configured perfectly for the driver.

Alonso’s claim that his tyre pressures were incorrectly set in Japan, however accurate that claim might be, would not have been influenced by the presence of a steward. Formula One is a sport where one psi difference in tyre pressure can make a huge difference, but it is only one part of a puzzle with wing, brake, suspension and fuel loads all feeding into the equation.

The stupid thing is that with the prancing horses so close behind in the championship, McLaren cannot afford to play silly buggers between teammates. If they sabotage Alonso and Hamilton goes gravel surfing as he did in China then Ferrari takes the championship. It doesn’t matter how much McLaren hate Alonso, and there’s plenty of evidence that they do, they wouldn’t sacrifice the championship just to get up his nose.

That having been said, it is pretty clear that Hamilton has got a pretty good run for a rookie. He hasn’t had to serve the apprenticeship that many other equally or more talented drivers have had to. He has been parachuted straight into the dream job at the perfect time. Regardless of whether he is being favoured, he’s certainly had a pretty easy time of it.

Putting this case aside, the question needs to be asked as to where this focus on fairness was when Eddie Irvine and Reubens Barrichello were forced to play second fiddle to Michael Schumacher at Ferrari. Or when Giancarlo Fisichella was sacrificed in favour of Mr Sooky himself, Alonso at Renault. Nowhere to be seen, of course.

This constant bickering is getting to the point where even rusted-on McLaren fans must be considering supporting Kimi Raikkonen. The combination of a whinger and an undeserving rookie are becoming increasingly unpalatable. Hopefully, this nonsense will all be resolved at the end of the season and the teams can leave the politics behind and get back to what they do best – turning huge wads of cash into carbon-fibre fantasy machines. It’s all the fans really care about.

Will the presence of an FIA steward stop the bickering in the McLaren camp? Post a comment below or submit an article to Sportingo.