This thread is now a prime contender for the most predicable thread of the 2012 season... both in it's content and in who is making what claims!
Ah, the dastardly X cars, the evil X team, the sinister X driver.... the epitome of evil doing what comes naturally... cheating, cheating and .... more cheating.
Some of you need to understand that the old saying "if ya ain't cheatin', ya ain't tryin'" is truer than any of you realize. Teams are going to "cheat", always have, always will. Not just some teams, not just teams from certain nationalities, not just the top teams.
The question that really matters is one's definition of "cheating". Most of the things being listed in this thread are "nothing" issues. Crashgate, that was a SOMETHING issue, as was SPYGATE, as are drivers running into other drivers intentionally...
Things such as "team orders" or the overblown "seal" incident are a part of strategies, as is pulling your driver in to let your best chance for the championship. This is a team sport, and as long as there is more than one car required of a team, it will continue to be so. We may see some of their actions as being unsporting, but in reality, that is our problem, not theirs. These teams spend 100s of millions to get results and to maximize exposure for their sponsors. As long as they are not breaking rules, it is legal even if we as fans see it as "shady". Is it cheating? NOPE... Is it smart? If it helps maximize your situation, YES. Are we always going to like it? NO.
As for the "protests" or "clarification requests"... so what? Teams have that right, and they have been done repeatedly in recent years for what we might well call "unsporting purposes"... look at all the technical innovations that have resulted in requests for "clarification"... Some of those proved to me nothing more than a disruption or distraction, some have resulted in near immediate actions in "spec" changes, and some have led to rule changes. It is what the teams have available to them, and their use of these processes is not necessarily underhanded.
My point is that we can all want the sport, the stewards, the teams and the drivers to be squeaky clean, to never make a mistake, to never do anything questionable, to always show great sportsmanship (as we define it), but like most of life in general, that is not going to happen... it just ain't human nature!
And before you fire away, let me say that I am not saying that all the points listed in this thread are honorable actions, as they certainly are not. Nor am I saying that we don't have a right to cry about them, we do. What we do need to do is keep them in perspective and accept that our own biases (yes, we all have them) affect how we view each situation.