MOTORSPORT: Aussie link in F1 espionage row

Friday motorsport reportJuly 20, 2007

Spy scandal goes back to March - and Melbourne
The Australian Grand Prix has suddenly become central to the F1 espionage scandal involving Ferrari information in the hands of at least one McLaren engineer -- and perhaps more.

Britain's authoritative Autosport magazine has revealed that Nigel Stepney, the British executive at Ferrari recently sacked by the Italian team, emailed McLaren's chief designer Mike Coughlan on the eve of the season starting in Melbourne in mid-March to tip him off about the movable floors in the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa.

Initially it had been thought that Coughlan did not have any Ferrari information until he received a 780-page file at his home in late April.

However, when motorsport's governing authority, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), recently announced an investigation into the espionage claims it curiously mentioned March -- and the Autosport revelation now explains that.

The FIA's World Motorsport Council will start a hearing on the whole matter next Thursday.

McLaren is charged with fraudulent conduct over Coughlan possessing Ferrari documents which he and his wife took to a photocopy shop near the McLaren factory in Britain.

Coughlan was already under suspension from McLaren before the FIA stepped in.

McLaren denies any involvement of anyone else on its staff, although there are reports that Coughlan showed something to managing director Jonathan Neale and spoke to others about the material.

McLaren also denies that any Ferrari information has found its way into the design or modifications of the world championship-leading McLaren-Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

Curiously, McLaren asked for a rule clarification about Ferrari's movable floor design at the Australian GP.

By the time of the Malaysian GP three weeks later the FIA had toughened its floor-testing and outlawed the design Ferrari had in Melbourne,

Ferrari's performance deteriorated in comparison with McLaren until its recent rebound.

Autosport reveals that the copy shop that tipped off Ferrari about Coughlan having the large dossier in April was asked to scan the information to a computer disc.

It says the paper files were shredded and burned in Coughlan's back garden.

Team Kiwi wonderboy has Hamilton mentor
New Zealand's team in Australia's V8 Supercar Championship has survived its recent crisis and vows to return at the eighth round of the series at Sydney's Oran Park in mid-August -- with a teenage driver.

This weekend's seventh round at Queensland Raceway near Ipswich is the third that Team Kiwi Racing has missed since its bust-up with Ford Performance Racing and the loss of driver Paul Radisich, but it has now confirmed a new association with Stone Brothers Racing.

Subject to clearance after a rookie at Queensland Raceway soon, Team Kiwi's new driver will be Shane Van Gisbergen -- who has just turned 18, is an NZ Formula Ford champion and has raced in the country's Toyota open-wheeler series.

Van Gisbergen has already had three previous tests in a V8 Supercar and seems to prefer a racing future with a roof over his head.

The teenager has also spent time with British-based Kiwi neuroscientist and motor racing strategist who has been involved, through his association with McLaren, with  F1 rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton.

Dr Spackman consults on issues of sensory and neuro-computational factors affecting a racing driver's ability to optimally control a car.

The others have been Michael Schumacher, who was on the dais 19 times consecutively for Ferrari in 2001-02, and Fernando Alonso with 15 straight visits to the podium in 2005-06, when he was with Renault.

While yet another top-three finish is on the cards for Hamilton, Nurburgring -- in the Eifel mountains south of Cologne -- has been a much happier place for Ferrari -- with the Italian team victorious there 14 times in F1, including last year with Schumacher, and McLaren only three times, and not since 1998, even though it is the home track of its engine partner Mercedes-Benz.

This weekend's race marks the 80th anniversary of the first race at Nurburgring, won by German Rudolf Caracciola in a Mercedes.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen has won the past two races in the world championship, the French and British GPs, and -- with his Australian victory in March -- is the only driver to have won more than twice this season, even though Hamilton and Alonso still head the championship.

McLaren is the only team to have scored points in every race with both drivers.

Dual world champion Alonso has scored points in his past 12 races (the first three of those with Renault).

The 27-year-old Winkelhock is making his debut at the place where his father Manfred last raced an F1 machine before his death in a sports car race at Mosport, Canada, in 1985.

Joachim Winkelhock, uncle of Markus, was an F1 driver in 1989 but never qualified, although he went on to win the Le Mans 24 Hours for BMW.

Two recent F1 drivers, Indian Narain Karthikeyan and Austrian Christian Klien, are vying to fill the Spyker seat full-time after Sunday's race.

Honda keeps Button and Barrichello
Despite Honda's woeful season, it has retained Englishman Jenson Button and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello for next year.

Barrichello, the second oldest driver in F1 now behind David Coulthard and starting his 243rd GP this Sunday, should break Italian Riccardo Patrese's record of 256 F1 starts in 2008.

After Button scored his first GP win in Hungary last August, he has Honda's solitary one point this season -- from eighth place at the French GP.

Barrichello's best this year has been ninth at the British GP.

He began with the Jordan team in 1993 and won nine GPs in his six years with Ferrari from 2000 to 2005.

Big weekend for expatriate Aussies
It will be a busy weekend for Australians racing overseas, with Mark Webber in his Red Bull RB3 in the F1 GP at Nurburgring, Will Power in his Team Australian Champ Car at Edmonton in Canada, Marcos Ambrose in his Ford Fusion at NASCAR's Busch Series round at Madison, Illinois, and Ryan Briscoe and David Brabham -- in Porsche and Honda Acura sports cars respectively -- in the American Le Mans Series at Mid-Ohio, where the Indy Racing League -- in which Brisbane-born Kiwi Scott Dixon has won the past two rounds -- is also running.

After his latest F1 trial at Spa in Belgium, Bourdais says Power "should be the biggest and toughest contender".

"I'd like to believe it is going to be between Will and myself," Bourdais says.

Champ Car rookie Doornbos, driving for Australian Paul Stoddart's Team Minardi USA, leads the series by two points from Power -- winner of two races this season, including the most recent in Toronto -- who is one point ahead of Bourdais.

The 7 network will screen the Edmonton race on delay early next Tuesday.

As they say, check your local guides.

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