MOTORSPORT: End of the spy saga?

The big development has been a public apology by Vodafone McLaren Mercedes -- yet another public humiliation for this great racing team. As we highlighted here a few days ago, there are serious questions about the way McLaren has been treated throughout this saga -- including the US$100 million fine and being stripped of all its constructors' world championship points, costing it a certain (constructors') title -- especially when Renault has escaped scot-free yet it also was found guilty of having received another team's, indeed McLaren's, secrets.

Some old, indeed very long-running, scores are being settled in this affair. We call it playing the man rather than the ball.

Some -- in particular Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) president Max Mosley and perhaps F1 commercial supreme Bernie Ecclestone -- may not be satisfied until they have run McLaren principal Ron Dennis out of his team and the sport. Dennis has vowed he won't go, but who knows what hand his enemies yet have to play against him?

"I will not be forced out of F1," Dennis has said. "I'm not going to quit. That is 100 per cent. I know there are people out there who want me to retire, but I'm not. I do not think it would be in the best interests of the team."

In the public apology, McLaren said: "As a result of the investigations carried out by the FIA it has become clear that Ferrari information was more widely disseminated within McLaren than was previously communicated.

"McLaren greatly regrets that its own investigations did not identify this material and has written to the World Motor Sport Council to apologise for this.

"To avoid even the possibility of Ferrari information influencing our performance during 2008, McLaren has offered a set of detailed undertakings to the FIA which will impose a moratorium on development in relation to three separate systems.

"During the course of these incidents, McLaren has conducted a thorough review of its policies and procedures regarding the recruitment and management of staff.

"McLaren wish to make a public apology to the FIA, Ferrari, the F1 community and to F1 fans throughout the world and offer their assurance that changes are now being made which will ensure that nothing comparable to what has taken place will ever happen again.

"McLaren now wishes to put these matters behind it and to move forward focusing on the 2008 season."

McLaren's arch-rival on the world's circuits, Ferrari, took that statement as closure of the row in a racing sense, although it will continue its court actions in Italy and Britain against sacked Ferrari man Nigel Stepney and former McLaren chief designer, Mike Coughlan.

When the subject of espionage arose, we doubted that Stepney was the man in the wrong, but after the mountains of material we have read on it over several months now it is hard to escape the conclusion that he is the one with most to answer for -- rather than McLaren or Ron Dennis.

Stepney may have had grounds to feel aggrieved at being overlooked for a promotion at Ferrari after Ross Brawn went on sabbatical (subsequently to resurface as head of Honda's F1 efforts), but to pass 780 pages of Ferrari material to Coughlan was not only a grave error but a grave sin.

One thing that still isn't clear is to what extent Stepney kept volunteering that dossier and how much Coughlan was pressuring him for what was contained in it. On the surface it seems that Stepney initiated most of the transfer.

In light of the McLaren apology, the FIA has cancelled the scheduled February 14 meeting of the World Motor Sport Council and F1 teams that had already been referred to in The Times of London as a potential Valentine's Day massacre for McLaren.

The FIA's thorough scrutiny of the 2008 McLaren F1 car, to ensure it does not contain any developments that could be traced to the infamous Ferrari dossier, presumably is still intended.

McLaren's attitude of late appears to have been to throw in the towel, apart from Dennis vowing not to go, rather than prolong the angst. McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh has said the matter has had a "morale-sapping consequence within the team".

"The long-term damage to the team's previously outstanding record and commercial capability is significantly greater than that potentially envisaged by the fiscal penalty that was previously imposed upon the team," Whitmarsh said.

We can't help feeling that McLaren has been comprehensively out-manoeuvred on all fronts by political masters -- particularly Mosley -- in this sorry saga, yet we fail to see how it has been the biggest villain.

Let's be frank about a couple of things here. Ferrari is unquestionably the centerpiece of F1, yet time and again it has got away with things or been the beneficiary of favourable decisions.

McLaren has been subjected to very different, and we say unfair, treatment. It has copped more than its fair whack without ever threatening, as it surely would be justified in doing, taking its bat and ball and walking away.

No matter how many obstacles its enemies put in its way, McLaren has retained its determination to overcome and to continue pursuing what it does best -- winning grands prix. For that, we reckon it deserves a medal, rather than more stick. Let's hope this is the end of the road on this unsavory business.

On the racing front -- isn't that what's all meant to be about -- McLaren has confirmed that it has signed Finn Heiki Kovalainen as Lewis Hamilton's new teammate.

This amounts to a swap, with Kovalainen taking the seat occupied this year by Fernando Alonso, who has gone back to Renault, where Kovalainen had his first F1 season this year.

McLaren has shown a fondness for Finns in the past, with Mika Hakkinen winning two world titles with it while Kimi Raikkonen almost became a world champion there but had to go to Ferrari to do it.

The London bookmakers aren't figuring on Kovalainen featuring too prominently in the 2008 title fight, with Raikkonen a 7-4 favorite, Hamilton 2-1, Ferrari's Felipe Massa at 5-1 and Alonso at 8-1.

Pardon our basis towards Alonso, but -- with the new wind tunnel restrictions likely to work against McLaren and Ferrari, and in Renault's lower-budget favor -- that 8-1 looks pretty good value.

In beating the seven-time F1 world champion in the final, Ekstrom -- Audi's two-time champion in the German touring car championship -- kept intact the record that no GP driver has ever won the Race of Champions -- although Heikki Kovalainen was successful in 2004, before he became an F1 driver.

Schumacher spun his car in a dash for the chequered flag at Wembley but, a year after he quit racing, was quite relaxed.

"It has been truly quite a thrill!" Schumacher said. "I've been here (the Race of Champions, never previously held in Britain) twice, and twice it has been a big pleasure.

"I wasn't so good in the Solution F (saloon). There is something with me where I need to see my wheels! I'm no good if I don't see them.

"But I'm open for fun events such as this. I hope I get an invitation next year!"

Kovalainen won through to the quarter-finals but lost control of his Aston Martin on the start/finish line in spectacular fashion and crashed into barriers during a race against Britain's triple world champion touring car driver Andy Priaulx.

The Brabham award is for outstanding achievement by an Australian in international competition. Last year it went to Cody Crocker and Ben Atkinson for winning the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship.

Power this year became the first Australian driver to win a Champ Car event -- the season opener in Las Vegas in April. He also won in Toronto, Canada, and had five pole positions on his way to fourth in the championship.

That was at the V8 Super School at Norwell, jointly owned by Ambrose and Paul Morris, and came a day after Earnhardt quietly drove an old development series Holden Commodore at Queensland Raceway -- and was immediately just 0.5 seconds a lap off front-running pace.

During his Australian visit 2004 Daytona 500 winner Earnhardt, son of the legendary but late Dale Earnhardt Senior, also has taken a look at Bathurst's Mt Panorama circuit -- and admitted it spooked him.

Contrary to the hysteria a few days earlier about the prospect that he may race in Oz for a year, or perhaps do Bathurst one year, Earnhardt set the record straight that he felt the Mountain was best left to those who knew most about it and the cars that race there, and that in any event there is no gap in his annual schedule for him to drive there.

On Ambrose, American commentator Mike Maruska says on the troubleinturn2 website that the Aussie "had a successful season in the Busch series, giving the (Wood Brothers) team long-term hope".

"In his first season at the Busch level, Ambrose scored one top 5, six top 10s and finished 8th overall," Maruska noted. "The plan in 2008 is to gradually introduce him to the (Nextel, now Sprint) Cup level (that sounds familiar).

"Ambrose already has proven a popular driver and quick study to American stock cars."

But Maruska is concerned about the strength of the once-mighty Wood Brothers/JTG Racing, with which Ambrose is slotted to drive a dozen Sprint Cup races in 2008 as well as do another full season in the Nationwide (previously Busch) series.

"It has been several years since the Wood Brothers #21 was challenging for (Cup) wins, but last year marked a new low for the team," Maruska wrote.

"For the first time since 1956 the Wood Brothers failed to score at least one top 10.

"2007 has to be considered the worst season in team history. It dropped from the top 35 (in the Cup championship) and couldn't return by the end of the year.

"This puts the team at a major disadvantage entering 2008. Not only are they outside the top 35, but one-car teams just can't cut it in Nextel Cup anymore.

"Jon Wood (who drove a couple of Cup races this year and is a grandson of Glen Wood, the founder and legendary driver of Wood Brothers Racing) fell ill and missed a large part of the Busch series and also missed out on potential Cup starts.

"Not only did Wood miss several Busch races, but his replacement Kelly Bires ran just as well (poorly) as Wood.

"(NASCAR veteran) Ken Schrader initially drove the car, but after the first five races Schrader had not finished better than 28th.

"(Another NASCAR veteran) Bill Elliott stepped in, returned the car to the top 35. and then Schrader returned for four races in the fall. He again failed to maintain a spot in the top 35 and was replaced a second time by Elliott for the final six races of the season.

"Like most other Ford teams, the Wood Brothers didn't take to the Car of Tomorrow (CoT) very well. In CoT races (about a dozen of the 35 in the series) the team averaged a 29.5 finish.

"With the circuit running every race in the CoT (in 2008), it will be a mighty large challenge to regain their guaranteed status."

Ambrose, Jon Wood and a third, still unnamed driver are to share a Ford Fusion entry in the Cup next year, but -- on Maruska's assessment -- there are grounds for concern, as we had already flagged here previously.

Australian team principal Alan Jones had been supportive of driver Ian Dyk up until the weekend's round at Zhuhai in China, but AJ's patience expired there after Dyk was 13th in practice and 18th and 19th in qualifying for the two races.

"I am not happy with Ian's performance or progress to date after having him in the car now for seven race meetings -- that equates to 14 races overall," Jones said.

"We are spending a lot of time at the back of the grid. Improvement is vital for the team as the crew are doing a superb job, the pit stops impeccably quick at every round, a team who are setting performance standards in pit lane.

"We are not returning that from the cockpit as you can see from the results so far this season."

Dyk proceeded to finish 13th in the sprint race, 17.169 seconds behind winning German Michael Ammermuller, while in the longer feature he wound up 15th, three laps down after a lot of time in the pits, as the race was won by India's Narain Karthikeyan -- an F1 driver with Jordan in 2005 and perhaps in frame for a return with that team, now Indian-owned at renamed Force India, at some point.

Karthikeyan held off a strong challenge from New Zealand's Jonny Reid -- who had started on the fifth row of the grid -- in the last 15 laps, taking the chequered flag just 0.5 seconds ahead.

The Zhuhai victories were the first for reigning champion country Germany and India this season, while Franky Cheng gave China its first podium with third in the sprint race.

Reid was embroiled in controversy with Malaysia's Alex Yoong over another incident between the pair in the feature race.

The series now moves on to Taupo in NZ on January 18-20 and then Sydney's Eastern Creek on February 1-3.

Don't be surprised if John Martin, the Queenslander who won last year's Australian Formula Ford Championship and has since been racing in Britain, replaces Dyk for those races after impressing the team during the rookie practice sessions at Zhuhai.

A1 GP series points after four of 10 rounds -- Switzerland 79 points, France 60, New Zealand 59, Great Britain 48, South Africa 47, Netherlands 41, Ireland 39, Germany 37, China 28, India 27, Brazil 22, Mexico 17. Australia is 17th on 2 points.

To comment on this article click here.