MOTORSPORT: F1 spy scandal not over yet

Friday motorsportJuly 27, 2007

The governing Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) will now turn its attention specifically to the actions of the McLaren designer, Mike Coughlan, and Ferrari's sacked head of performance development, Nigel Stepney (pictured), with the threat of long bans from the sport hanging over the pair.

Ferrari says it will continue its legal action in the Italian criminal justice system against Stepney and in the civil jurisdiction in England against Coughlan.

The Italian team has hired London's former metropolitan police commissioner, Lord Stevens, to investigate how its secrets found their way to McLaren.

The decision overnight of the FIA's 25-man World Motorsport Council has delivered a verdict in line with McLaren's stance -- that Coughlan alone had the files (780 pages of them) and that nothing came of them, in terms of them not having contributed to any improvements on the MP4-22 McLaren-Mercedes cars driven by Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso that head the world championship.

Hamilton has 70 points in the drivers' championship to Alonso's 68, while Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen have 59 and 52 respectively. McLaren leads constructor standings on 138 points -- 27 clear of Ferrari.

The world council decision is a relief, at least temporarily, to McLaren and its drivers, in that they go unpenalised, but Ferrari's anger appears to be not only over how such a decision could have been arrived at and also that, apparently, emails from Stepney to Coughlan gave McLaren the information on which to query the "flexi-floors" of the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa at the Australian GP.

Our interpretation is that Ferrari sees the query, which led to the massive toughening of the rule on the stiffness of the floors in F1 cars by the Malaysian GP three weeks later, as having curbed its competitiveness and allowed McLaren to establish the upper hand in the championship throughout April and May.

The world motorsport council's decision is also in line with, but we're not necessarily suggesting because of, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone's wish that the matter be dealt with quickly last night so that the sport could get on with racing.

The undertone, although Ecclestone did not say it, was that a long-running saga could impact on the corporate impression of F1.

Any diminishing of the corporate world's impression of F1 is something it does not need at a time that one of the world's other great sporting events, cycling's Tour de France, goes from bad to worse on the back on never-ending drug scandals which are driving away sponsors and television networks.

However, the detail published in Britain's Guardian newspaper and Italy's Corriere della Sera makes us believe that Ferrari's accusations are too detailed to be ignored.

We have also seen a suggestion today that, in financial terms alone, the difference between Ferrari winning and not winning the world championship this year could amount to about A$9 million under the complicated distribution arrangements contained in the Concorde Agreement under which teams participate in F1.

The FIA says its world motorsport council was satisfied that McLaren-Mercedes possessed confidential Ferrari information and was therefore in breach of its international sporting code.

However, it says there was insufficient evidence that this information was used to interfere improperly with the world championship, and that's why it imposed no penalty.

But, it says, and importantly, if it is found in future the Ferrari information has been used to the detriment of the championship it reserves the right to "invite" McLaren-Mercedes back before the world council "where it will face the possibility of exclusion from not only the 2007 championship but also the 2008 championship".

The FIA says the world council will now "invite" Stepney and Coughlan "to show reason why they should not be banned from international motor sport for a lengthy period".

"McLaren accepts that the FIA world motorsport council had no alternative other than to find that there was a purely technical breach by reason of the possession of certain information by one individual at his home, without McLaren's knowledge or authority," it says.

"McLaren is delighted that the world motorsport council determined that this information was not used and accordingly imposed no sanction whatsoever on the team."

McLaren Ron Dennis says he "wants to re-affirm our long-standing commitment to honesty and integrity and re-state that we believe we have acted correctly throughout".

We don't want to make any unfair judgement ourselves here, but the McLaren/Dennis statements are entirely consistent with having isolated Coughlan once this affair erupted, but the revelations in the Guardian and Corriere della Sera, if they have any truth to them, suggest that the matter is not that clear cut.

We'll return to that later.

"Today's decision legitimises dishonest behaviour in F1 and sets a very serious precedent," Ferrari says.

"In fact, the decision of the world council signifies that possession, knowledge at the very highest level and use of highly confidential information acquired in an illicit manner and the acquiring of confidential information over the course of several months, represent violations that do not carry any punishment.

"The fact that Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes was in possession of such information was discovered totally by accident [our note: at a photocopy shop near the McLaren headquarters] and, but for this, the team would continue to have it.

"This is all the more serious as it has occurred in a sport like F1 in which small details make all the difference.

"Ferrari feels this is highly prejudicial to the credibility of the sport."

Ferrari is a very political outfit, and it traditionally has played the politics of F1 very well.

While the decision overnight has gone against it, don't discount that it won't yet end up coming out on top in this row.

They reveal that documents Stepney is alleged to have passed to Coughlan contained details of four aspects of the Ferrari F2007's design.

"Ferrari's lawyers claim that, in March, Stepney sent three emails to his friend Coughlan about an unspecified 'floor device', a rear wing-flap separator (for enhancing aerodynamic downforce) and a 'subtle engineering technique to lower the floor of the Ferrari car'," the Guardian says.

" A document obtained by the Guardian and the Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, also claims that, at a meeting between the two men in Barcelona at the end of April, Stepney gave Coughlan 'a diagram of a brake balance assembly used by Ferrari and discussed how the rear brake disc on the Ferrari F1 car worked'."

The Guardian continues: "Ferrari's lawyers trace the origins of the (espionage) row to the three alleged emails, which they say were received by Coughlan at his McLaren email address.

"They claim he then showed the email relating to the floor device to Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren's chief operations officer, 'who asked him to take up the issue with Paddy Lowe', the team's engineering director.

"Coughlan, Ferrari alleges, 'produced a schematic drawing for Mr Lowe, which was then forwarded to the FIA', which later banned Ferrari's flexible floor."

"This version of events is certain to be contested by McLaren.

"The Anglo-German team has said Coughlan did receive information from Stepney but that it was never in the possession of 'any McLaren employee other than the individual sued by Ferrari' (Coughlan).

"The Italian team's lawyers insist that Coughlan, on the contrary, went to the top and, after the Melbourne Grand Prix on March 18, told Jonathan Neale, McLaren's managing director, 'about the emails which he had been receiving'.

"He is then said to have fixed with Stepney their meeting in Barcelona and 'during the course of that telephone conversation asked Mr Stepney about the brake balance used by the drivers of the Ferrari'.

"In Spain, the Italian team's representatives claim, the British mechanic (Stepney) gave his friend a bundle of documents and a diagram illustrating the brake balance.

"The diagram, they allege, was shown by Coughlan to Rob Taylor, a design team leader at McLaren, on the next working day.

"The documents said to have been leaked ran to approximately 780 A4 and A3 pages, together with five drawings.

"Ferrari claims that on May 25, Coughlan 'showed at least two pages' to Neale.

"This has been denied by McLaren who, on July 16, said that the fact that Coughlan 'held at his home unsolicited materials from Ferrari was not known to any other member of the team prior to July 3, 2007', the day it announced his suspension.

"The material, Ferrari says, included 'most of the technical documents necessary for designing, engineering, building, checking, testing, developing and running an F1 racing car. There were details of the F2007's weight distribution, aerodynamics, component designs, suspension, gearbox, hydraulic, water, oil and fuel system designs'.

"The documents also included 'reports on technical verifications, which show how the key components on the 2007 Ferrari F1 car and the car itself perform', 'pictures of details of the car' and 'financial information relating to the Ferrari team budget'.

"The fact that McLaren's chief designer had them in his possession gave his team 'an unfair advantage over Ferrari in F1 racing for the 2007 season', the Italian team's lawyers maintain.

"The documents, Ferrari claims, enabled Coughlan 'to identify Ferrari's strengths and weaknesses' and 'gauge McLaren's philosophies against those of Ferrari'."

So what are to we make of all this?

We find it difficult to have anything less than the greatest of respect for McLaren's Ron Dennis, and have felt inclined to believe his stance throughout this matter.

However, there is a lot of detail in these Ferrari accusations. Importantly, there are several names of McLaren people other than Mike Coughlan.

That is still not to say that any of the Ferrari information has found its way on to the McLaren-Mercedes cars, but matters just do not seem as simple as trying to project that Coughlan was the only McLaren executive who knew what was in the files.

As much as the FIA, Ecclestone and McLaren may want this case to die, we can't see that happening in a hurry.

It's the seat that Markus Winkelhock had at last weekend's European GP at Nurburgring, and which he amazingly led in the crazy wet conditions at the start.

The vacancy came up after Dutch-owned Spyker fired Dutch driver Christijan Alberts when one of his sponsors did make a required payment.

Yamamoto, who raced at the end of last year for Super Aguri and made his debut at the end of 2005 with Jordan (which has since morphed into Spyker), has got the slot purely and simply on the basis that he brought the most money to buy it ahead of India's Narain Karthikeyan and Austria's Christian Klien.

Don't expect anything of Yamamoto. Apart from being only a pay driver, Spyker is one of only two teams that have failed to score a world championship point this season. The other pointless team is Toro Rosso, which also is likely to have a new driver by the Hungarian GP in a week's time, with American Scott Speed as good as gone there.

While NASCAR's big guns race on the famed Brickyard in the Nextel Cup round, the Busch Series in which Ambrose drives is at the city's O'Reilly Raceway Park.

After the next sprint round at Sydney's Oran Park on August 17-19, it's the Sandown 500 in Melbourne on September 14-16 and then the Bathurst 1000 on October 4-7.

Time will tick down fast now to the big races, so we thought it worthwhile catching up on drivers lined up for them.

As you will see, there are only a couple of gaps left to fill.

The draft vehicle eligibility list and class structure for the Bathurst event were also released this week.

Race manager Craig Denyer says: "We have made minor changes to the class structure for next year, however the basic philosophy of the 2007 event remains.

"With our current environmental issues, the return of the alternative energy classes is set to grow with more manufacturer involvement from its introduction in 2007.

"We have also recognised the growing trend toward automatic and semi-automatic cars with the introduction of a class specifically for automatic cars, plus a class to recognise the growing interest in modern tarmac rally cars.

"Utes also make up 30 per cent of all Commodore and Falcon sales, so we thought it important to reflect this trend as well."
As things stand the 11 classes are:
1: High Performance All Wheel Drives -- Under $125,000
Including the Alfa Romeo Bera JTS Q4, Mitsubishi Lancer GSR EVO IX , Subaru WRX Sti, Volvo S40TS AWD, Volkswagen Golf 32, Mazda 6 MPS.
2: High Performance Rear Wheel Drive -- Under $125,000
FPV F6 Typhoon and Falcon GT models, HSV Models, BMW 335i twin-turbo, Nissan 350Z Track Z33.
3: Hot Hatch Performance Cars -- Under $75,000
Including the Audi TT Coupe, Ford XR5 Turbo, HSX VXR, Mini Cooper S JCW, Mazda 3 MPS, Renault Megane R26.
4: Over 5.0 Litre Production Cars -- Under $65,000
Including the Ford XR8 BA MkII, Ford XR6 Turbo BA MkII, Holden Commodore SS VY, SS VZ and SS VE.
5: 2.5 -- 5.0 Litre Production Cars -- Under $65,000
Including the Ford XR6, Holden Astra SRi Turbo, Mazda RX8, Hyundai Tiburon, Lexus IS250, Mitsubishi 380 VRX.
6: Under 2.5 Litre Production Cars -- Under $45,000
Including the BMW 120i, Citroen C4UTS, Ford Focus STI7O, Holden Astra SRi and Kia Magentis, Volkswagen Golf GT.
7: Eco Diesel/Hybrid Over 3.5 Litre
Including the Alfa 159, Volvo C30, Citroen C6, Audi A4,Volvo C30, Lexus GS 450h
8: Eco Diesel/Hybrid 3.5 Litre and Under
Including the BMW 120d, Fiat Punto, Holden Civic, Toyota Prius, Holden Astra SRi and Saab Linear Sport 9-3.
9: V8 Utes
For vehicles complying with the sporting and technical regulations of the Australian V8 Ute Racing Series, including the Ford XR8 AU and BF and the Holden SS VU, VY or VE.
10: Automatic and Semi Automatic Transmissions
For cars with CVT/Automatic or Semi Automatic Transmissions, this class will be split to cater for under and over 3 Litre capacities on demand. Eligible vehicles include the Audi TT, Toyota TRD Aurion, Chrysler 300C and Chrysler Crossfire.
11: Tarmac Rally Cars
Eligible vehicles for this class include the Subaru Impreza WRX STi Spec C and Mitsubishi Lancer RS EVO

Potential competitors have until August 30 to apply for their vehicles to be considered if not already included.

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