Nigel Stepney, who has served Ferrari for more than a decade, who memorably had his foot run over by Michael Schumacher in a botched pit-stop, who has been the manager of race operations for years, has been taken off race duty, told he may not leave the company for pastures new, and must serve out his contract, though he doesn't want to, has now been informed that he will be prosecuted, if Ferrari have their way, for crimes against the team.

It seems likely that the crime being alleged is espionage, in some form or other. Ferrari have dropped broad hints in the last year or so that they suspect they know who the top man was in the conspiracy to feed Ferrari secrets to Toyota. It now seems all but certain that Stepney is their suspect, and this very tragic and dramatic story is going to only get worse.

See Autosport for the latest on this. They broke the story today.