Move on from spy verdict, experts tell F1 world

(GMM) A trio of experts has advised the formula one world to accept McLaren's penalty and return its focus to the sporting action.

Having occupied the paddock's attention for several months, the espionage scandal reached its crescendo on Thursday when the World Motor Sport Council disqualified McLaren from the constructors' championship and imposed a record $100m fine.

But the reaction to the verdict has now become the centerpiece of the media's coverage of the sport, despite formula one this weekend returning to the historic and hugely popular Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium for the first time in two years.

Triple world champion Niki Lauda is confident that calmer times do await.

"Tomorrow we have qualifying and on Sunday the race, and the sport will again play the main role," the veteran Austrian told RTL on Friday.

He advised: "As soon as the Belgian grand prix is driven, the sport will be out of the background and back on the front pages."

BMW-Sauber principal Mario Theissen also urged F1 to move on.

"It is important that the sport is brought back to the spotlight," he is quoted as saying by the newspaper Lubecker Nachrichten.

And in the midst of some dissenting voices who question the motives and political propulsion of the FIA's verdict, 1982 world champion Keke Rosberg backed the governing body.

"We need a tough sporting authority, a third party, to control our sport," he insisted to Premiere.

"In our case that is the FIA — and we must therefore respect its decisions," the Finn, whose 22-year-old son Nico drives for Williams, told German television.