Full Throttle

However, due to circumstances beyond Renault’s control - the Kangaroos on the WMSC court were on holiday - no penalty was imposed.

“The World Council found Renault F1 to be in breach of article 151c of the International Sporting Code (bringing the sport into disrepute) but imposed no penalty,” according to a statement released Thursday.

“Detailed reasons for this decision will be issued on Dec. 7, 2007, and a transcript of the proceedings will be published as soon as possible thereafter.”

Allegedly, Flavio’s boys weren’t penalized because no evidence indicated that the team had benefited from the information.

Perhaps I should rephrase my opening line to read “no penalty was imposed,” yet.

This same road was traveled in July after the first McLaren-Ferrari hearing. When the Alonzo/de la Rosa phone calls were made public McLaren faced a second hearing in Paris and the multi-million dollar boom was lowered on the team.

Flavio claims to be “pleased” with the decision and the team can “now focus fully on our preparations for the 2008 championship.”

Well, not quite, Briatore is focused on a little retribution in the form of legal action threatening to haul McLaren into court on charges of defamation of character of something they may not ever have had. Briatore told The Daily Express: “A lot of very bad things have been said about us by McLaren in the last few weeks, very damaging.”

Presumably, and assuming no new revelations come to light, this clears the way for the continued courting of free agent Fernando Alonso. (Pictured above during a recent super-duper tippity-top secret Renault test session)