Speculation ahead of Wednesday's courtroom conclusion to the "Liegate" scandal seems to indicate that the most likely penalty that will be handed out to McLaren will take the form of a points deduction, as opposed to a race ban.
The potentially lenient points penalty, which compared to the idea of the team being banned for any number of races, seems to be a rather lenient way to go, but may reflect that the FIA have taken onboard the way that McLaren have already accepted their guilt, with team CEO Martin Whitmarsh and driver Lewis Hamilton both issuing frank apologies after the team was caught lying to the stewards after the opening race in Australia.
A penalty of that nature, which may well knock the team into negative scores for 2009 so far, would potentially cost the team prize money in the constructors championship. Every place higher up the standings is worth around $3 million.
The rumours of a reduced penalty follows reports of a "contrite" letter, written by Whitmarsh to the FIA, in which he acknowledged that the team had done wrong in attempting to mislead the stewards, and offered a full apology.
According to one 'source', who could have been anyone, "It is all up to McLaren now. If they go into the meeting contrite and hold their hands up then they could get off," adding that: "But if they go to Paris trying to defend themselves like they did over Ferrari-gate it will not be good for them."
McLaren's change of tack over Liegate is backed up by the news that Whitmarsh will face the World Motor Sports Council by himself, without a legal team alongside him, showing that the team have accepted the charges meted out and will simply accept whichever punishment the WMSC deem fit for them.
"I will go into the hearing alone.," Whitmarsh said with his best brave face on, "It's not a complicated hearing. We have chosen not to contest the charges and that makes the process simpler."
How much this new meek approach from McLaren will sway the WMSC decision remains to be seen, given that attempting to contest the charges given the clear evidence available would have been more than a little silly.
The Liegate fun will begin in Paris on Wednesday morning.
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