An Irish solicitor will be one of a global team of legal experts putting the world’s racing teams – especially those in Formula One, which returns with the Australian Grand Prix this weekend – under scrutiny when called upon.
Niall Geaney, originally from Limerick but now based in Clonakilty in west Cork, has for many years been a sports law specialist, and he is one of the people who worked to establish and enforce the “cost cap” budget-limiting rules in Formula One and electric Formula E.
Last December, Geaney was appointed to the highest of all motor racing legal courts – the FIA International Tribunal and International Court of Appeal, as well as the FIM’s similar courts for MotoGP motorbike racing.
The FIA – or Federation International de l’Automobile – is the governing body of world motor sport. It is the organisation, made up of a multitude of member associations including Motorsport Ireland, which establishes the championships for Formula One, the World Endurance Championship, the World Rally Championship and many more.
READ MORE
It could be easy to be intimidated, walking into a courtroom to pass judgment on whether Ferrari has broken a rule, for example, but Geaney’s sangfroid is firmly in place.
“Surprisingly, it’s not that difficult” Geaney explains, speaking from his office in Clonakilty. “You do have to be careful, and make sure that you’re scrupulous about your independence from both the teams and even from the FIA itself, lest there be a concern of even perceived bias. After that, the teams can arrive in all of their logos and clothing, with solicitors and barristers, and that could be intimidating, but ultimately they’re just putting their case forward, and you’re just listening to them and making decisions.”
With Formula One kicking off a major new era of rules and regulations this year (new engines, new aerodynamics, and all with the potential for rule bending and breaking) he is likely to have a busy year ahead. Already, controversy is swirling around F1’s engine manufacturers trying to gain an advantage through higher compression ratios, so with the first race of the year in Melbourne imminent, Geaney must surely be anticipating a full roster?
“I am staying well clear of compression ratios,” he says. “You never really know before a season starts as to what might happen that can lead to cases. It is impossible to tell at this early point.”
Surely, though, there’s an argument that what some would call cheating and what others would call clever interpretation, is a fundamental part of the sport, and all contributes to the excitement?
“If you have a set of regulations that are overly restrictive, you’re going to start to stifle great minds” Geaney adds. “And if you look back at the likes of designers like Ross Brawn and Gary Anderson, if it was a case that every time a set of regulations came out and that they came up with something inventive, you immediately clamp down on it, eventually you are just going to end up with Formula One being a spec formula, where everyone just runs the same car.
“That said, technical rules are there for a reason, So, no, there is no argument for leniency in this respect in my view.
“I don’t think motorsport is over-regulated. I know that’s not a popular answer and a lot of motorsport fans will disagree and say the regulators should let the racers race. By having clear regulations, however, you have a better and fairer playing field.
“Take for example the likes of penalties for exceeding track limits. A football player cannot take the ball beyond the sidelines, a boxer cannot go beyond the ropes, a horse cannot run around the fences and an Olympic skier has to ski between the gates. Nothing different from a Formula One car having to stay on the track or face a penalty. They are not minor infractions – they are just simply the rules.”
Geaney certainly won’t be letting drivers off lightly if they start getting their elbows out.
“Yes, Senna, Prost, Schumacher, and Verstappen are obvious cases everyone looks to as regards how drivers might have acted in the past. It is extremely difficult, however, to balance keeping racing exciting and ensuring drivers do not firstly injure each other, but also do not set a poor example by their actions. Regulation again is key here – clearly defined rules of engagement which are consistently applied.
“Education from the grassroots level is also key, we need to show that you can race closely and still act well within the rules and show good example. Some of the best drivers in the sport don’t need to make contact with others to excel. Good clean racing should be applauded.”
For all his legal seriousness, though, Geaney is a motor racing nut through and through, invoking memories of seeing the West Cork Rally as a child (he’s still involved in the organisation of that event), and sitting up late at night listening to “the Japanese Grand Prix on BBC 5 Live in the middle of the night with Murray Walker describing the glowing brake discs of Damon Hill’s Williams on the rain-sodden track. I was one of those kids that always had a Formula One car drawn on my copy books at school or stickers attached to my pencil case.”
He is not one for a case of the rose-tinted lenses when it comes to F1, though.
“The colour and smell of an F1 car passing you at full speed is still a pretty special experience that only one per cent of all F1 fans get to experience in person. More important than the engine noise debate though in my view is that we need to increase that one per cent of fan attendance at races to allow more fans to experience the three senses that these ultimate machines bring. All that said give me a 1990s V12 engine sound anytime ...”
