FIA officials to ensure McLaren equality in Brazil
"I think that Fernando Alonso could have put the idea into their head," he told the Bild newspaper.
Meanwhile the Austrian has warned Alonso to expect to play hardball with McLaren team boss Ron Dennis when they finally sit down to discusses his future with the team.
"Ron is not an easy man but I always knew the limit, I cannot damage my sponsors or the people who pay my money," he told Reuters.
"It will be interesting to see what happens after Brazil."
10/11/07 (GMM) The highest ranking Spanish motor sport official will travel to Brazil next weekend to ensure that McLaren give equal treatment to countryman Fernando Alonso for the 2007 championship finale.
Carlos Gracia, also an FIA vice president and member of the World Motor Sport Council, confirmed to the newspaper Diario As that he has accepted the invitation to watch proceedings at Interlagos from the Woking based team's garage.
"Ron Dennis extended me an invitation so that I can see that they have nothing to hide, and I decided to accept," he said.
Gracia insists, however, that his presence will not be in an official FIA capacity, and that he believes McLaren's announcement on Wednesday that Alonso and his teammate Lewis Hamilton will be treated equally in Brazil.
"Logically it could not be different," he explained, "also because behind them is a Ferrari driver, so that McLaren has to fight against the red cars, not their own driver."
But Gracia also revealed that the FIA will commission an official to formally ensure that equality is adhered to at McLaren for the last race of 2007.
He said "strange situations" have arisen at McLaren, particularly in qualifying at the last three grands prix.
Gracia said he met with FIA president Max Mosley a few days ago and laid out his concerns, and also put the issue in writing.
He said the FIA responded with confirmation that an official will watch "very closely any activity that is against Alonso" at the event