> Ferrari-McLaren Spy scandal

Stepney denies leaking Ferrari data

Former Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney has insisted that he didn’t leak data from the Italian squad.

The spying controversy erupted earlier this month after McLaren’s chief designer Mike Coughlan was suspended by the Woking squad after a substantial amount of Ferrari data was discovered at his home.

Ferrari has launched separate legal action in Italy and England against Stepney and Coughlan, although Stepney has denied any wrongdoing.

And the Englishman has once again protested his innocence, insisting that it was someone else who handed the McLaren designer the documents.

"I did not take any designs away from Ferrari,” he told Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper.

“Someone passed on the designs but it wasn't me.

"I do not want to involve other colleagues.

“I know one part of the story, not all.

“Ferrari know the whole story."

The World Motor Sport Council ruled last week that McLaren had contravened article 151c of Formula 1’s sporting code because Coughlan possessed confidential Ferrari technical documents.

But it deemed there was “insufficient evidence” that the team had used or benefited from the information to warrant any kind of penalty.

However the governing body did warn that should it emerge that the team had made use of the data, McLaren would be summoned again.

Mosley refers McLaren-Ferrari case to Court of Appeal

The World Motor Sport Council’s (WMSC) decision not to sanction McLaren for possessing Ferrari data could yet be overturned after FIA President Max Mosley referred the case to the Court of Appeal on Tuesday.

It follows a plea by the Italian Automobile Club and Italian Motor Sport Commission (ACI-CSAI) on Ferrari’s behalf and means the team will now be able to formally present evidence in the case - something they were unable to do at last Thursday’s hearing.

In a letter to Mosley, ACI-CSAI President Luigi Macaluso said the body could not comprehend how McLaren had not received a penalty, given the Council’s findings that the team had indeed breached the International Sporting Code. He also implied that the result might have been different, had Ferrari been able to give evidence.

In response, Mosley admitted that there had been “suspicious elements” in McLaren’s defence, but agreed with the Council that these elements did not constitute proof of wrongdoing. However, in light of Ferrari’s lack of representation and the importance of the case, Mosley agreed to refer it to the Court of Appeal.

Replying to Macaluso, he said: “Your letter suggests that the outcome may have been different if the Council had given Ferrari further opportunities to be heard beyond those that were in fact offered.

"Because of this and the importance of public confidence in the outcome, I will send this matter to the FIA Court of Appeal under Article 23.1 of the FIA Statutes with a request that the Court hear both Ferrari and McLaren and any other Championship competitor who so requests and determine whether the decision of the WMSC was appropriate and, if not, substitute such other decision as may be just.”

A date for the appeal has not yet been announced.

McLaren dismayed by appeal decision

McLaren has expressed its dismay at FIA president Max Mosley’s decision to refer the verdict of the spying case to its Court of Appeal.

The championship-leading team was last week found guilty of possessing confidential Ferrari documents, but was not given a penalty as there was deemed to be “insufficient evidence” that the team had benefited from the data in any way.

The World Motor Sport Council’s ruling sparked outrage from Ferrari and prompted a letter from the Italian motorsport federation to Mosley asking for the Scuderia to be given a full chance to present its side of the story in an appeal court hearing – a request granted by the FIA on Tuesday.

McLaren has since issued a statement expressing its disappointment at the governing body's decision and criticising its championship rival’s handling of the matter in the media.

“Following a thoroughly misleading press campaign by Ferrari and pressure from the Automobile Club d'Italia, the FIA has asked the FIA International Court of Appeal to consider the unanimous decision made by the World Motor Sport Council on 26th July 2007,” the statement read.

“Having considered in great detail the full submissions of both Ferrari and McLaren, the World Motor Sport Council determined that there was no evidence that any information, passed by a Ferrari team member to a McLaren employee, had been brought into the organisation or provided any benefit whatsoever to the McLaren programme.

“McLaren is not aware of any new information or arguments that have arisen since the meeting of the World Motor Sport Council and therefore assumes that these same materials will now be considered by the FIA International Court of Appeal.

“Whilst this is both disappointing and time-consuming, McLaren is confident that the FIA International Court of Appeal will also exonerate McLaren and we will in the meanwhile continue to focus on our current World Championship programme.”

Meanwhile Ferrari has welcomed the decision to take the matter to the appeal court, where unlike in the WMSC hearing, it will have the chance to present its full case.

The Italian company’s main board of directors met in Maranello on Tuesday to discuss the latest developments in its ongoing legal actions against its former engineer Nigel Stepney and McLaren’s suspended chief designer Mike Coughlan.

“The Board took note of the FIA World Council’s decision of 26th of July and of today’s decision from the FIA President, Max Mosley, to refer this matter to a hearing of the FIA Court of Appeal, where Ferrari, as the injured party of the incident, will be accorded all the rights to which they are entitled in a trial, which was not the case at the World Council meeting,” a statement said.

McLaren hits back at Ferrari


McLaren has accused Ferrari of spreading false and misleading information about its role in the spy saga so as to tarnish its reputation and destabilise its world championship challenge.

In addition, the British team has responded to its Italian rival’s allegations that it has cheated by claiming that Ferrari won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix with an illegal car.

Stung by recent statements from Ferrari and the Italian motorsport federation, and dismayed by the FIA’s decision to refer the espionage case to its Court of Appeal, McLaren published a detailed monologue on Wednesday evening intended to “set the record straight”.

The letter, written by Ron Dennis and addressed to the president of the Italian motorsport authority Luigi Macaluso, presents McLaren’s version of events in public for the first time.

Dennis reveals that his team was made aware of technical irregularities with Ferrari’s cars in March after Ferrari’s high-ranking employee Nigel Stepney tipped off McLaren’s chief designer Mike Coughlan.

But he insists that this disclosure constituted “whistle-blowing” and was in no way connected to the 780-page dossier containing secret Ferrari information later found at Coughlan’s house – of which McLaren says it had no knowledge until July 3.

The information Stepney furnished in March concerned two contentious aspects of the Ferrari F2007: its rear wing separator and a floor attachment mechanism.

As a result McLaren requested a clarification of the rules from the FIA, which subsequently introduced more stringent bodywork regulations that forced Ferrari to redesign its floor.

“As far as we are aware, Ferrari ran their cars with this illegal device at the Australian Grand Prix, which they won,” Dennis writes.

“Ferrari only withdrew the floor device after it was confirmed to be illegal by the FIA.

“Were it not for Mr Stepney drawing this illegal device to the attention of McLaren, and McLaren drawing it to the attention of the FIA, there is every reason to suppose that Ferrari would have continued to race with an illegal car.”

Despite defending Stepney’s “whistle-blowing”, Dennis says McLaren was concerned that he might be harbouring a grudge against Ferrari and therefore instructed Coughlan to avoid further contact with him.

Coughlan was given the go-ahead to meet Stepney on April 28 – outside of working hours – after he convinced his superiors that it was the only way to stop Stepney from continuing to air his grievances about Ferrari.

Dennis says McLaren believed that this meeting had settled the matter and knew of no more conversations between the two men until July 3.

He categorically refutes the allegation that any other McLaren employees knew that Coughlan had been given confidential Ferrari data by Stepney, and insists Coughlan kept this material at his house for ulterior motives.

“I emphasise that these documents were found at Mr Coughlan’s home,” Dennis writes.

“No Ferrari documents were found at McLaren’s offices.

“Since Ferrari discovered that Mr Coughlan had the Ferrari documents at his home, it has gone to extraordinary lengths to try to maximise the damage to McLaren, no doubt hoping to gain some advantage for the world championship.

“In particular, Ferrari has alleged, without any justification, that other McLaren staff were aware of what Mr Coughlan had done and that McLaren made some use of the documents.

“Ferrari has no evidence whatsoever for these offensive and false allegations and presented no such evidence to the World Motor Sport Council.

“The Council quite correctly rejected these allegations.”

Dennis accuses Ferrari of deliberately blurring the distinction between the earlier “whistle-blowing” incident and Stepney and Coughlan’s subsequent collusion.

“These [latter] events are quite separate from Mr Stepney’s whistle-blowing in March 2007, because during this period Mr Coughlan was acting secretly, in breach of his contract with McLaren, and for his own private purposes, quite conceivably as part of a scheme to leave McLaren and join another team together with Mr Stepney,” Dennis writes.

“As regards Ferrari’s allegation that other McLaren staff were aware of what Mr Coughlan had done, in its statements to the press, Ferrari has tried to confuse the March 2007 whistle-blowing by Mr Stepney (which McLaren did know about) with the events on and following 28 April 2007 (which Mr Coughlan kept completely secret).

“Let me make it clear: McLaren did know about the whistle-blowing matters in March 2007 – indeed it reported these matters to the FIA.

“However that has nothing to do with what Mr Coughlan did on and after 28 April 2007.

“McLaren management and staff had no knowledge whatsoever about that.”

Dennis admits that two McLaren staff, including managing director Jonathan Neale, were shown single pieces of paper which Coughlan claims were taken from the Ferrari dossier – but denies that they either used them or had any idea of their provenance.

“In short these instances did not alert Mr Taylor or Mr Neale that Mr Coughlan had taken possession of the Ferrari documents,” Dennis writes.

“Neither they nor any other member of McLaren staff had any idea what Mr Coughlan had done.”

Dennis is adamant that McLaren was not only unaware of Coughlan’s collusion with Stepney, but did not benefit inadvertently from the information he had gleaned.

“Mr Coughlan himself is categoric that he made no use of the Ferrari documents in the McLaren car,” Dennis writes.

“Mr Coughlan’s job related to the management of drawing production by the design staff and their sign off prior to issue to our production facilities.

“He did not have responsibility for the performance enhancement of the car.”

Dennis says McLaren conducted “a very thorough physical and electronic search” which established that “none of the Ferrari documents were at McLaren as opposed to at Mr Coughlan’s home, and that there is no possibility that any of the information in those documents could have been used on any development on the McLaren car.

“At the hearing, McLaren demonstrated clearly to the satisfaction of the World Motor Sport Council that no use whatsoever has been made of any of the contents of the Ferrari documents in the McLaren car.

“Accordingly, Ferrari’s continued allegations in the press that McLaren has made use of the Ferrari Documents are entirely false.”

Finally, Dennis disputes Ferrari’s claim that it was not given a proper opportunity to put its case, pointing to a memorandum circulated to the WMSC (and leaked to the Italian press) and several interventions during the hearing itself.

“Ferrari fully participated in the hearing before the Council,” Dennis contends.

“I therefore simply do not understand what basis there is for Ferrari’s claim that it was denied an opportunity to put its case.

“It put its case both in writing and orally.”

In his closing remarks Dennis accuses Ferrari of dragging the sport through the mud through “grossly misleading statements” about McLaren’s actions.

“The reason McLaren was not penalised is that the World Motor Sport Council rightly concluded that it should not be blamed for Mr Coughlan’s actions,” he writes.

“It based its decision on solid facts and not false innuendo.

“McLaren’s reputation has been unfairly sullied by incorrect press reports from Italy and grossly misleading statements from Ferrari.

“This is a fantastic world championship and it would be a tragedy if one of the best world championships in years was derailed by the acts of one Ferrari and one McLaren employee acting for their own purposes wholly unconnected with Ferrari or McLaren.

“We believe that the Ferrari press releases, the leaks to the Italian press and recent events have been damaging to Formula 1 as well as McLaren.

“The world championship should be contested on the track not in courts or in the press.

“We will naturally present our case before the FIA Court of Appeal as we strongly believe McLaren has done nothing wrong.

“It is our belief that justice will prevail and that McLaren will not be penalised.”

Ferrari was only allowed to sit in the proceedings and not present the case against Mclaren? looks like FIA is trying to hush this entire matter so that it does not tarnish the game's reputation. On one hand, its ferrari, on the other hand, its game. Check this letter from Mosley

http://www.fia.com/resources/documen...fia_letter.pdf

Source

Edit : Please join this to the other thread of Mclaren Spying. I for once, forgot about that thread

yeah.... I have been regularly updating the main thread with news.

Threads merged --- http://www.funenclave.com/formula-1/...cent-9942.html

FIA sets September date for McLaren-Ferrari appeal

The International Court of Appeal (ICA) will meet in Paris on Thursday, September 13 to review the World Motor Sport Council’s recent decision not to penalise McLaren for possessing confidential Ferrari data.

The Council found McLaren to have breached the International Sporting Code through their actions, but imposed no sanction as it could find insufficient evidence that the team had made use of the data.

However, FIA President Max Mosley decided to refer the matter to the International Court of Appeal due to the importance of the case and because of claims that Ferrari had not had sufficient opportunity to put forward their version of events.

In fact, Ferrari and all other teams will be allowed to make any relevant submissions to the Court, and all have been invited to attend the hearing, along with members of the press.

Spy case appeal set for September

The International Court of Appeal hearing into the spying controversy will take place on Thursday September 13, Formula 1’s governing body the FIA has confirmed.

The verdict of the World Motor Sport Council was referred to the appeal court last week by FIA president Max Mosley following a request from the Italian motor sport authority.

McLaren was found guilty of possessing confidential Ferrari documents in the initial WMSC hearing after they were found in its chief designer Mike Coughlan’s home.

But the Woking squad was not penalised after it was deemed that there was “insufficient evidence” to suggest that it had benefited in any way from the data – a decision which promoted criticism from Ferrari.

As requested in a letter to Mosley by the Italian motor authority last week, Ferrari will be allowed to present both written and oral submissions to the appeal court.

McLaren and any other team that so wishes will also be given the opportunity to speak at the hearing in Paris.

Magistrate links Stepney to sabotage

An Italian magistrate believes he has gained “reasonable proof” that former Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney is linked to the attempted sabotage of the team’s cars before the Monaco Grand Prix.

Ferrari has launched legal proceedings against its former stalwart, with Stepney – who has maintained his innocence throughout – accused of allegedly tampering with their cars' fuel rigs before the Monaco weekend and passing confidential information to McLaren’s suspended chief designer Mike Coughlan.

The magistrate looking in to the case says after studying white power found in the fuel and on Stepney’s trousers, he believes he has gained enough evidence for the case to continue.

"We have reasonable proof that Stepney was involved in this," Giuseppe Tibis was quoted as saying by the Guardian newspaper on Wednesday.

"We found powder in the fuel, while such a modest quantity was found on the trousers that I was concerned about destroying evidence and am asking for a further study to be undertaken by a judge," said Tibis.

Stepney was sacked by Ferrari in July after 14 years at the team.

He has continuously denied any wrongdoing in either matter, insisting he didn’t leak the data to Coughlan and had been set-up in the sabotage claims.