McLaren formula one team in an expected decision announced their intention to appeal the penalty imposed on Lewis Hamilton in Sunday’s 2008 Belgian Grand Prix terming it as harsh and excessive.

A lot of British formula one blogs are full of heated discussions with people blaming everyone from FIA to Max Mosely to Ferrari  even (LOL). The McLaren spokesperson was quoted as saying that Lewis Hamilton had infact backed off and given the position to Kimi Raikkonen back :

We looked at all our data and also made it available to the FIA stewards. It showed that, having lifted, Lewis was 6km/h slower than Kimi as they crossed the start/finish line. Having passed the lead back to Kimi, Lewis repositioned his car, moving across and behind Kimi to the right-hand line and then outbraked him into the hairpin. Based on this data, we have no option other than to register our intention to appeal.

While that argument makes a little sense, many others dont. For example i read an argument on the Internet that the penalty benefits 2 drivers who were not even part of the incident. Now what the hell is that supposed to mean ? Penalties arent supposed to be 3 seconds loss for a 3 seconds gain. There are rules, i dont think  Lewis Hamilton is the first person in history to be given a drive through penalty.

Then there are the allegations that this is being done to help Ferrari, now i remember that during last year’s spy scandal controversy also a lot of people were saying the same thing, but in the end McLaren did turn out to be thieves. Ronn Dennis wasn’t the angel people wee making him out to be.

Anyway, i couldn’t care less to which way this “appeal” goes, but its going to be one hell of a championship fight !