PARIS — McLaren was handed a suspended three-race ban Wednesday, escaping a more severe punishment that could have derailed Lewis Hamilton’s bid to repeat as Formula One champion.
The World Motor Sport Council gave McLaren the suspension for lying to officials and other breaches of F1 rules at the Australian and Malaysian Grand Prix races.
The WMSC said in a statement that the team admitted to five charges of breaching the International Sporting Code. The council expressed appreciation for the “open and honest” way in which McLaren conducted itself and recognized the change in culture at the team.
The three-race suspension will only be applied if McLaren commits a further rule breach or if new facts came to light, the statement said.
FIA president Max Mosley, who attended the hearing, said he did not think McLaren had been let off lightly and that McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh “made a very good impression, very straightforward.”
Ecclestone agreed with Mosley that the matter had gone far enough.
“They got their wrist slapped and that’s all they needed. They’ve got enough punishment,” Ecclestone said, referring to McLaren’s loss of points from the Australia Grand Prix.
Whitmarsh said the team had apologized for lying to race officials when it said Hamilton was not given instructions to let Toyota’s Jarno Trulli make an illegal overtaking move while the pair were behind the safety car during the latter stages of the Australian GP.
Trulli was initially given a penalty of 25 seconds for overtaking, giving Hamilton third.
McLaren then passed up two opportunities to rectify evidence it knew was false, and this led FIA to dock Hamilton’s points and void McLaren’s results from Melbourne.
Hamilton later apologized, saying he was “instructed and misled” about evidence by sporting director Dave Ryan, who McLaren blamed for masterminding the deception. He was then fired.
“We are aware that we made serious mistakes in Australia and Malaysia, and I was therefore very glad to be able to apologize for those mistakes once again,” Whitmarsh said. “I was also pleased to be able to assure the FIA World Motor Sport Council members that we had taken appropriate action with a view to ensuring that such mistakes do not occur again.”
Asked if this is the end of the affair, Whitmarsh replied: “I very much hope so. I hope this will draw a line and we can carry on with racing.”
Hamilton has been struggling on the track with poor cars this season, and a suspension for McLaren could have effectively ended any hopes he had of defending his title.
Hamilton has only nine points from the first four races, trailing championship leader Jenson Button by 22.
McLaren has been in the firing line before. Two years ago, the team was fined a record $100 million and stripped of its constructors’ points for having obtained secret information about rival Ferrari’s car.
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