Just_a_fan wrote: ↑14 Mar 2022, 00:53
History. We watched them go from pace setters to also rans in the course of a few weeks after the FIA decided to investigate their PU.
dans79 wrote: ↑14 Mar 2022, 00:40
Because if they hadn't been doing something illegal, they never would have agreed to a deal that gimped them for 2 years.
In the history of F1, many solutions were allowed to be raced a few times until someone finally made up his mind and declared them undesirable (not illegal) for being against the spirit of the rules, or something like that. It could be argued that such was the case for Ferrari's engine.
It goes without saying that the involved teams lost performance after those bans...
Just_a_fan wrote: ↑14 Mar 2022, 00:53
Oh, and the FIA's statement at the time included this:
The extensive and thorough investigations undertaken during the 2019 season raised suspicions that the Scuderia Ferrari PU could be considered as not operating within the limits of the FIA regulations at all times.
Not operating within the limits of the regulations means "illegal".
And "suspicion" means "the act or an instance of suspecting something wrong without proof or on slight evidence".