Just out of interest, how many instances can we remember where a team deliberately fell foul of the regulations to gain a sporting advantage?
I will start
April 2014. Red Bull took issue with the accuracy of the FIA’s fuel flow sensors and proposed its own model for estimating the fuel flow at the season opener. Surprisingly the court of appeal found Red Bull’s own interpretation of its data concurred with the view that Ricciardo’s car had breached the rules. “The appellant’s own estimation of its car number three’s [fuel flow rate] in Melbourne also showed that that car exceeded the [fuel flow limit] during the Australian Grand Prix,” noted the verdict.I t further pointed out Red Bull was not at liberty to choose a system of measurement it preferred.
Nov 2012. Ferrari deliberately broke the gearbox seal on Massa's car at Austin, to put him five places back, and Alonso onto the clean side. The Brazilian was set to line up sixth on the grid, two places ahead of his team-mate Fernando Alonso. Their positions meant they would be starting on the dirty side of the grid - which looked like being a huge disadvantage because of the slippery nature of the track off line. Massa was put down to 11th, while Alonso moved up to seventh spot - crucially on the clean side of the track.
Crashgate. September 2008, on the fourteenth lap of the Singapore race, the Renault R28 driven by Piquet crashed into the circuit wall at turn seventeen, necessitating a safety car deployment. This allowed the other Renault driver, Fernando Alonso, to make an early pitstop and subsequently gain the advantage to win the race after starting 15th on the grid. Piquet described his crash at the time as a simple mistake.
2005. Bar 007. After a routine check of the car's weight, the team was disqualified in Imola and banned for a further 2 Grand Prix', including the GP of Monaco. The Honda engineers had designed the fuel tank so the car would pass scrutineering easily before the race but could run underweight during it. As such, the FIA deemed that the car was illegal as it was designed to use fuel as ballast.
Your first two examples are so different from your second two though. The first examples are examples of a team not making any effort to conceal what they were setting out to achieve. In the first instance, RBR thought they would be found retrospectively to have had a case for having the regulation found to be unfair and thus their actions would be deemed reasonable afterwards. Ferrari obviously were actively counting on being hit with the sporting punishment. Hamilton overtaking the safety car at Valencia in 2010 seems another example in this vein. Even with the penalty applied, it didn't offset the gains from the offence.
The other two just seem to be teams trying to get away with straight up cheating, actively concealing what they were up to. This seems less interesting although maybe only so to me. Tread lightly if you want to supply examples of this one, guys. No libel, please.
