NURBURG, Germany — McLaren has denied Ferrari allegations that more than one McLaren employee was privy to the stolen Ferrari technical information prior to July 3. Ferrari has stated that McLaren Managing Director Jonathan Neale also knew about the documents.
“McLaren can confirm from its own investigation that no Ferrari materials or data are or have ever been in the possession of any McLaren employee other than the individual sued by Ferrari,” a McLaren statement said, referring to Mike Coughlan.
“The fact that he held at his home unsolicited materials from Ferrari was not known to any other member of the team prior to the 3rd July 2007.
“Furthermore, McLaren has categorically established that no Ferrari information has at any stage been used to develop its car.”
McLaren said it was confident that it could prove all this at the FIA World Motor Sport Council hearing in Paris on July 26.
It will be interesting to hear the outcome of the spy scandal.
FIA President Max Mosley says that McLaren could be punished, including losing points, if found guilty. If McLaren is punished for the actions of one individual (Coughlan) it becomes an issue of collective guilt. And in that case, surely Ferrari should also be punished collectively for the actions of one person (Ferrari alleges it is Nigel Stepney) within its team.
Going by the standards of criminal courts, Ferrari should be punished even more severely because in this case an individual in that team allegedly stole something, whereas the McLaren individual is “only” guilty of receiving stolen goods.
During the past weeks a steady stream of insider stories leaked into the Italian media from the affidavit that Coughlan, by order of the High Court in London, gave to Ferrari. Where is it coming from? And is it accurate?
“The High Court ruling led ultimately to three recipients of Mike Coughlan's affidavit being told in no uncertain terms that it was privileged information,” McLaren director Ron Dennis said, “and that they would be committing a legal breach in the event of any of it being shared with third parties.
“I am quite sure the FIA understands the nature of the court order, so I can only assume the other parties who had this material have chosen to share distorted excerpts with other people.”
McLaren, which had no input into the Coughlan/Ferrari affidavit, filed its own report to the FIA on July 20. Dennis said that the leaked stories give an imprecise view of what happened and that the truth will eventually come out.
Stepney, meanwhile, says he is willing to talk to Ferrari’s Luca di Montezemolo and Jean Todt to prove that he is innocent in the Ferrari/McLaren espionage affair.
“I want to clear my position with Ferrari; I want to let everyone understand it’s nothing to do with me,” the Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport quotes Stepney saying via his lawyer.
“And I want to reveal some names of people inside Ferrari who had more interest than myself in doing what I'm unfairly accused of.
“I have nothing against the team, and I could never have done such things. I repeat: it’s a conspiracy.”
Italian newspapers reported that Stepney says he has no idea how the mysterious white powder got into his pants pocket or the Ferrari fuel tanks.
In the paddock at the Nürburgring, a source close to Stepney told me that Stepney might also make a public statement before the case is heard by the FIA on July 26.
After the hearing we will all know a lot more about what really happened.