Ferrari has copped its US$100,000 whack for orchestrating the order in which its drivers finished the German Grand Prix - Fernando Alonso ahead of Felipe Massa.

It won't appeal.

The matter also has been referred to the World Motor Sport Council.

That 26-member panel is unlikely to  assemble until September 10.

There are two more GPs before then - in Budapest, Hungary, this weekend, and at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium at the end of August.

The fine on Ferrari was for breaching a sporting regulation that "team orders which interfere with a race result are prohibited".

The four stewards at Germany's Hockenheim circuit decided the Italian team also broke a rule related to bringing the sport into disrepute.

September 10 is the opening day, the Friday, of the Italian GP at Monza.

Imagine penalising Ferrari - Formula One's oldest, most successful, most revered team, the undeniable centrepiece of F1 - on the eve of its home race in Milan, up the road from its base at Maranello?

As if.

So what or who is this World Motor Sport Council (WMSC)?

It is the most powerful motor sport arm of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).

The FIA and the WMSC both are headed now by Jean Todt, the Frenchman who ran Ferrari's F1 team for about 15 years, including the heyday of Michael Schumacher.

It was Todt who was the architect of the Ferrari team order at the 2002 Austrian GP, when Brazilian Rubens Barrichello begrudingly moved aside at the final corner to allow Schumacher to take yet another victory.

It was that event that brought about the very rule that Ferrari has now been fined for breaching.

There is doubt that Todt will sit on the WMSC when it meets - most probably in Paris - to consider this latest matter.

Surely he couldn't.

Among the other 25 on the WMSC are Bernie Ecclestone, the all-powerful commercial master of F1, who has made it known since Sunday's happenings that he sees nothing wrong with team orders.

Another councillor is Australian Garry Connelly, who as a senior official of the bigger and broader FIA had a vote two years ago on whether Max Mosley was the man to remain head of the FIA in the wake of the revelations of his little Friday afternoon S&M session with a few ladies of dubious repute - but felt no obligation to tell fellow Australians how he voted, although clearly it was for Mosley.

But back to the German GP and the Ferrari team order.

Stefano Domenicali, the Ferrari team principal, denies that there was any such thing; that Massa's engineer Rob Smedley telling the Brazilian over the radio that "Fernando is faster than you" was just "a briefing" and that it was Massa who made the decision to slow two laps later and let Alonso overtake him for the lead.

Massa, according to the Domenicali version, had "decided it was best not to create a risky situation", given that third-placed Sebastian Vettel, the Red Bull Racing teammate of Australian Mark Webber, was closing on the red cars.

And of the fine, more than A$110,000, Domenicali said: "In the interests of the sport, we have decided not to go through a procedure of appealing against it, confident that the WMSC will know how to evaluate the overall facts correctly."

In the vernacular of Australia's original F1 telecaster Channel 9 (long since replaced by the Ten Network), Massa had to cop a "shit sandwich" at Hockenheim - and this on the anniversary of him suffering an horrendous eye injury in a Ferrari that could have ended not only his career but his life.

Massa is a marvellous little fellow, albeit maniacal at times on the track. He was stiff not to win the world title two years ago but took his loss to Lewis Hamilton in the most sporting manner. Hopefully his time will come again, but he better than anyone - other than perhaps Barrichello - knows the ways of Ferrari. Do as you are told and, as a rule, it will be generally for the best in the long run.

"We are working for the team and that is the most important thing," Massa said, diplomatically.

But was what Ferrari orchestrated at Hockenheim that bad anyway?

Firstly, it must be said, that to see the red cars adorned with the emblem of the black prancing horse so competitive again, when it looked to be becoming a championship between the McLarens and Red Bulls, was terrific.

Alonso went to Hockenheim 47 points behind McLaren's championship leader Hamilton. He had been falling behind the four drivers in front of him on the scoreboard. Massa was already out of the title race.

So it was natural that Ferrari wanted Alonso to score maximum points at Hockenheim.

The Spaniard, a dual world champion with Renault, had qualified on the front row of the grid, just 0.002 seconds slower than Vettel, but as the race began Massa grabbed the lead from the second row by overtaking the young German on the left as Vettel squeezed Alonso to the right.

Vettel's pole position was quickly wasted as the Ferraris scooted clear.

F1 cars have to use two different types of tyres during GPs these days, and Massa for some reason struggles on the harder compound - and did so particularly when he went on to them at Hockenheim.

Although Alonso was faster than him, the Spaniard could not overtake Massa.

The sophisticated aerodynamics of F1 cars make passing difficult - the trailing car loses much of its traction as it closes on the car ahead.

And, while circuits are wide in some places, there is generally only one correct racing line, and venturing off that line trying to overtake is hazardous as the tyres can suddenly lose grip.

As Mike Gascoyne - a veteran of F1 and these days the technical director of the reborn Lotus team - says, team orders are a reality in the sport - but they need to be implemented nicely, not blatantly.

Certainly Ferrari should have been more subtle - perhaps using a fuel-saving code to Massa, rather than the blunter message that Alonso was faster than him.

And rather than slow so obviously, Massa perhaps could have disguised the team tactics better by letting Alonso slip by as the pair came up to overtake a backmarker.

But remember that these guys, even the slower ones, are driving at speeds sometimes topping 300kmh.

Vettel had been pressuring the Ferraris, increasing the importance to the Italian team that Alonso - its quicker driver and its better world title chance - be in front, with Massa as a buffer.

For Alonso to be handed the lead was nowhere near as bad as what happened in Austria in 2002. There was no doubt then that Schumacher and Ferrari were going to be world champions.

Nor is this latest instance in the league of what happened in Melbourne in 1998, when David Coulthard moved aside in the closing laps to let his McLaren teammate Mika Hakkinen win - something that subsequently greatly troubled the Scotsman.

There was no championship coming to a head that day at Albert Park - it was the first race of the season.

Contrary to the outrage so many are happy to express about the latest Hockenheim episode, the claims of a "fix", it has made an already stellar world championship even better - it's genuinely a five-driver tussle again.

Hamilton has 157 points, his McLaren teammate Jenson Button 143, Webber and Vettel 136 each - although Webber has won one more race, not only than the German but all his rivals - and Alonso is now on 123, with eight GPs remaining, each with 25 points for the winner.

Earlier this month we noted here that Webber needed to outscore Hamilton by an average of 2.5 points a race to have a real chance of beating Hamilton to the crown.

Despite the Aussie's British GP victory little more than two weeks ago, the hurdle for Webber is now closer to an extra 2.7 points a race.

While his sights are obviously on the McLaren pair ahead of him, and teammate Vettel, Webber now has Alonso and his Ferrari looming larger in his mirrors.

And that's for the better of the sport. Not worse.