WHERE THE AUTOMOTIVE WORLD MEETS FOOTBALL

Not yet acquainted with American football? This week has provided reason to draw parallels, but by no means are the football/F1 similarities financial.

Bill Belichick is not a people-person in the way that; say, Colts coach Tony Dungee is. Belichick is the mastermind head coach behind the New England Patriots and their recent Superbowl victories. It is common knowledge that he is a holdout from the NFL Head Coaches Association.

And apparently, he cheats. At least, his team cheated in their first game of the season against the New York Jets. Get caught videotaping the handsignals of the Jets defensive coordinators and pay $500,000, Bill. Thanks. Oh, and the team was docked $250,000 and will lose either a first-round draft pick or second & third round picks.

How is this related to our automobile world? One of the automobile world's most prominent players is Mercedes-Benz. Perhaps you've heard of the German company. Well, Mercedes-Benz is the engine maker for the McLaren Formula 1 team. The team's full name is Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and they are the 2007 season's most dominant team.

Thanks to industrial espionage? That's the allegation. Up to this minute, evidence hasn't been publicized, Ron Dennis' team has been fined $100,000,000. Eek, ouch, yikes. Not even bank account could handle that blow; how can team boss Ron Dennis handle it? Every single point the team has accumulated up to this point have been docked. Any points the team could collect in the remaining four races will poof! - never appear.


However, outstanding rookie Lewis Hamilton and reigning World Champion Fernando Alonso will retain their positions in the driver's standings. They're entitled to continue amassing points for the rest of the season. Ferrari has been playing catch-up all season, and they've been doing a better job of it lately. Knowing that successful changes to their cars chassis will not be replicated on McLaren cars may give Ferrari an even bigger push - enough to put Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa over the top? Time will tell.

Apart from Ferrari's silver lining on this dark cloud, there is also the added attention the sport is receiving in North America. Long held knowledge that F1 is the technical and monetary King of Motorsport has never improved its status as a sideshow to Nascar and the Indy 500. Frequent attention, even for a brief week, alongside an NFL cheating scandal on CNN and other major broadcasts may actually create some much-needed positive attention to the sport.