But it didn't help them get ahead, it just made them look stupid.
I'm not sure how often there have been suspected dummy pit stops, has any team ever gained anything from them?
No, because it didn't work, which is why I've never suggested a sporting penalty of any kind.
My comment was intended, really, as a kind of musing as to whether this rule is actually going to be enforceable, and strong enough to deter teams from continuing to do these dummy stops. So I was thinking more about its future application, than about the race just gone. When I say "a position like Mercedes was in on Sunday", I meant to refer to any case where a faster car is stuck behind a slower one and would be capable of pulling a gap if it could find its way past. I'm aware that things didn't play out like that on Sunday because (a) Williams didn't fall for it and (b) it rained anyway.
Ultimately, if a team wants to do a dummy stop and is prepared to tell the driver to come in and then cancel the call at the last minute, they could easily concoct a plausible-sounding reason for this. They could say they made a decision to pit based on a misinterpretation of the data, and that once this was pointed out to the pitwall, the decision was reversed. I know the burden of proof is on the team, but the standard of proof is unlikely to be unattainably high, and any plausible story would stand a chance.
There seems to be a consensus, with which I broadly agree, that once the team knows it will have to bear the burden of proving to the FIA that it was a genuine call, they won't want to take the chance, but that's a risk/reward calculation. I'm pointing out that unless the actual sanction to be applied for this offence is going to be assessed on a sensible, case-by-case basis, and not just as a blanket, automatic, standard 5s like most other infractions, then there isn't going to be any risk for the teams to factor in. They will evaluate it like this:
Reward: We increase our chances of getting past the car that is ruining our race.
Risk: We may or may not get a 5s penalty. If we don't get past and remain stuck behind the slower car, the 5s may or may not effect our finishing position. Taking Sunday as an example, the Mercedes cars were running 3rd and 4th and were well clear of 5th, so if the race had continued like that, even if Mercedes remained stuck, a 5s race time penalty would have cost them no places. If we do get past, the 5s penalty definitely won't make any difference as we have the pace to pull away.
The danger is, if a team thinks the trick might work, it's going to seem like mainly reward and very little risk.