McLaren have escaped any immediate penalty after a disciplinary hearing into how they came to be in possession of confidential Ferrari documents.

Chief designer Mike Coughlan, who has since been suspended by the team, was in possession of that information.

But the World Motorsport Council said there was "insufficent evidence" it had affected this year's championship.

But if they are judged to have gained any future advantage from it, McLaren could be barred from the championship.

McLaren team chief Ron Dennis' immediate reaction was that he was "not completely comfortable with the outcome but the punishment fits the crime," and that a formal comment from the team would come later.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/6910369.stm

Lucky, lucky, lucky *******s!

I have seen it alleged that Mike Coughlan and Nigel Stepney were looking for work elsewhere, e.g. Honda.

I have read that the Ferrari has a very long wheelbase and virtually nothing is interchangeable between the cars. So it would then be a real stretch of vicarious liability to say McLaren were at fault...

It was allegedly the bloke in the copy shop who spotted Mrs Coughlan making 2000 copies of some "redprints"!

I have read that the Ferrari has a very long wheelbase and virtually nothing is interchangeable between the cars. So it would then be a real stretch of vicarious liability to say McLaren were at fault...

That wasn't what ferrari were arguing. If you have highly detailed information on your competitor e.g. race strategies, fuel tank size, tyre wear rates, set up information, detailed diagrams of the f2007 floor and rear diffuser etc etc, you can second guess their actions and that gives you an unfair advantage in the race.
You dont need to have copied any of their parts, that would probably be counter-productive because none of those parts would be compatible with your car, all you need to have done is use the information that you had illegally obtained to amend your cars design and/or contstruction.

It was a horrible horrible decision by the FIA. The message it sends out is cheat all you want, but just make sure you destroy the evidence prior to getting caught:dunno:

... The message it sends out is cheat all you want, but just make sure you destroy the evidence prior to getting caught:dunno:

Nah, the message it sends out is 'cheat all you want, as long as you have golden-boy hamilton on your team, who is a rather important and ratings-grabbing figure right now' :lol:

Pinched off another forum:

Saint Max's Epistle to the Maranellons, Ch.1

Brothers and Sisters,

for ten years now my ministers and I in the Ferrari Intervention Agency have toiled along with you against your battles with the Bald One and his Silver Demons. We have also smoted the cheating Hondan's and the Symonites and their mass dampers.

But lo my children, the blessed Michael has left you and our Lord and Master and his beloved Slavica can no longer schew their blessings upon you.

A new prince has risen in the land of the Bald One and the Silver Demons, and our Lord and Master revealed to us his wish in a new vision.

'Max O beloved

thou shalt turn thy face from Maranello and support the new prince,

Lo even when the numpty rests in the gravel trap, thou shalt send a metal angel and deliver him verily back to the track,

Lo even when the Bald One shall steal the Maranellons secrets from their tabernacle, THOU SHALT NOT SMITE HIM,

for verily the Bald One and the new prince are blessed to me,

and my love for the Maranellons is no more'


O Maranellons accept the word of thy Lord and Master.

Even though thy elders Wiggy Luca and little Jean may cry,

Even though the fire water drinking Finn and the little munchkin may wail and lament,

Understand this:

Bernie will make more money from the WDC and the new English bloke,
Yeah they cheated but so have you in the past,
You're out, they're in,
So get over it.

Amen.

You have to smile at the irony here. Many times Ferrari have benefited from FIA rulings and now they're up in arms when they're not!

One of the Italian magazines used this good, but flawed analogy.
"Imagine you have had your car stolen and then it is found in the garden of a man who lives near you. You inform the police and they verify the theft. But because the thief shows that he hasn't used the car, he's cleared of any crime."

Nearly right, but its more like your car is stolen, you know who did it but it hid it in the garden of his boss, without his boss knowing about it and you accuse the boss of using the car.

The key here is that McLaren didn't know that their guy had the Ferrari technical documents until 3rd of July. If they knew nothing about it, their employee hadn't told anyone that he had them, how on earth can they be held responsible for their guy's actions.

There is no proof that any information from the documents was ever used to the detriment of Ferrari. Ferrari are just embarrased because the documents got out in the first place and trying to lay blame when there really isn't any.

You have to laugh at Ferrari for have such laxed security that they allow 700+ of very classified material out of the front door

Nearly right, but its more like your car is stolen, you know who did it but it hid it in the garden of his boss, without his boss knowing about it and you accuse the boss of using the car.

The key here is that McLaren didn't know that their guy had the Ferrari technical documents until 3rd of July. If they knew nothing about it, their employee hadn't told anyone that he had them, how on earth can they be held responsible for their guy's actions.

There is no proof that any information from the documents was ever used to the detriment of Ferrari.

Ah but in F1, just like in lots of other areas a company can be held liable for the actions of one of its employees (there is a latin term for this but for the life of me I cant remember it). What's more its not just any old employee like it was in the Toyota case- it was the Chief designer, who has/had a massive input into the design of their car.

Mike Coughlin's affadavit (allagedly)states he told Martin Whitmarsh and Paddy Lowe that he had the material- they all told him to get rid of it.IF that is true, that means Mclaren were aware of it but did not report it to the authorities- that is against not only the rules but the spirit of the sport.

I dont think we have heard the end of this. Ferrari have hired Lord Stevens and his Forensic agency to look into it- and i'm sure that would have set them back a fair wad of cash- they wouldnt do that purely on the basis of embarassment or pride...

Yes, but i think the point is that for the time he had access to the material, it was too short to actually make any use of it on their current car.

Ferrari dont like this because in time, a lot of Ferrari's dirty secrets are going to come back to haunt them.

If McLaren had been found guilty, it would have all blown over and Ferrari would be safe.

However, it didn't and now Ferrari are sweating.

Nigel Stepney wil go to court, and there is a good chance that Ferrari will be embarrased when he gets there.

Lets not forget that many times, Ferrari have been let off.

There movable floor this year, bringing the sport in to dis-repute a few years ago to name but two occasions.

Also, the amount of times Ferrari have benefitted from underhand tactics and subsequent FIA rulings, McLarens Brake/Steer system (which was ruled as legal by Charlei Whiting) is one such example. However, Ferrari complained and for some reason the FIA upheld, very strange is you ask me.

Ferrari are by far the dirtiest team in F1. I hope they get they're just dessrts when all this is over.

The FIA cant be happy with Ferrari at the moment anyway. Not only did they drag all this into the public domain, but also, they still can not seal the leaks resulting in section of Coughlan's Affadavit coming to the press.

Pinched off another forum:

Saint Max's Epistle to the Maranellons, Ch.1...That's great! does anyone else remember "the legend of Ecclestonia" off itv-f1.com? I kept quite a lot of it...