Ferrari/McLaren Espionage Story [merged]

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To spoil the world championship and for sure annoy many fans so much that already the farce that is formula one will go down the pan for ever.

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The FIA have done that before -

In 1995 the FIA went to great lengths embarrassing the Toyota works team by banning them from the WRC until 1998 because they were exceeding the power limit imposed on WRC-spec cars. They were categorically cheating, and only got caught nearing the final round of what was a tumultuous season of the WRC (It had only 8 rounds in 1995). At that point in the championship the Toyota Celica's were leading both titles and were the reigning WRC champions.

Given the facts of this saga get pretty messy, the evidence is less conclusive and I don't think either team will be punished by the FIA, bar maybe a huge fine.

However as proven by the point above, the FIA have the power to remove the team and can do so if they deem necessary in this case. Though if I was a tifosi at this time, I wouldn't hold my breath.

well.. Ferrari won't let this go easily..

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Meanwhile, with McLaren admitting that 'a senior member of its technical organisation personally received a package of technical information from a Ferrari employee at the end of April', The Guardian reports that 'Ferrari believe that the improvement in McLaren's performance after the Spanish Grand Prix on May 13 is consistent with the apparent leaks at the end of April.'

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Oh dear, this could get messy :mark:

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Originally Posted by savage86

utter rubbish, punish the man not the team, who have been working so hard slaving away night and day. Dont punish Lewis and Alonso who have been risking there lives for race wins.

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The man is part of the team and has a huge influence on it, given his position.

As for the risking their life part, you must be kidding, I mean which driver isn't risking his life in F1?! :rolleyes:

For now we only know (and it was proved when the police searched his home!) that McLaren's chief designer received top secret material from a Ferrari employee. In the mean time the Ferrari employee (Stepney) was sacked by Ferrari for not yet disclosed reasons. Until there is no evidence that McLaren benefited in any way from those informations I can not say they are at fault, although I can't see what those infos were good for anything else.

Do you all remember that we talked about that misterious wind tunnel faileure Ferrari suffered about2 months ago? What if they discovered that it was Stepney's hand in it???

Just a thought here: is there any rule in the FIA against spying?

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Originally Posted by Valve Bounce

Just a thought here: is there any rule in the FIA against spying?

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Maybe not, but what about bringing the sport into disrepute??? :p :

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Originally Posted by Valve Bounce

Just a thought here: is there any rule in the FIA against spying?

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There's one about intellectual property (the one which caused everyone to blow up because of the customer car debate earlier this year) which would be pretty telling if the parties concerned can find the right information.

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Originally Posted by Valve Bounce

Just a thought here: Ferreri have this super dooper seamless gear change transmission - could this have anything to do with that?

OK, maybe not :(

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McLaren has one, RBR has one, Williams has one and Toyota uses the Williams version because it couldn't make its own seamless shift work. honda and super aguri have it, too.

Gazzetta is reporting that the package contained the whole design for F2007.

This is going to be mega.

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Originally Posted by Malllen

The FIA have done that before -

In 1995 the FIA went to great lengths embarrassing the Toyota works team by banning them from the WRC until 1998 because they were exceeding the power limit imposed on WRC-spec cars. They were categorically cheating, and only got caught nearing the final round of what was a tumultuous season of the WRC (It had only 8 rounds in 1995). At that point in the championship the Toyota Celica's were leading both titles and were the reigning WRC champions.
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toyota were punished for a very blatant piece of cheating. the FIA knew it was going on by ALL teams, announced at which round they would check it and toyota was the only team that didn't remove their trick.

they engineered (a beautifully engineered thing it was, too) a bypass of the air-inlet restrictor that sat perfectly in position at idle and low rpm, but sprung open at wider throttle openings. unfortunately for them, one of the spanners blipped the throttle while a scrutineer had his head under the bonnet and they caught them.

they got banned because it was a systematic cheat to bypass not only the restrictor, but an FIA rule - and arrogantly refused to remove it even when it knew it would be checked.

this is a very different story. when informed by investigators, McLaren's management instantly moved to suspend, then sack, the employee in question. i don't know what more they were supposed to do to make some people happy. Hand back the points?

there's a strange smell to all of this. Stepney books his holiday through the Ferrari agency at Ferrari's suggestion, then Ferrari says it has no idea where stepney is. they find a mystery powder at Stepney's house after he's gone overseas on a Ferrari-suggested holiday. They find confidential ferrari paperwork in his house.

I've spoken to a lot of ferrari employees about this and, from race mechanic to senior engineer, they're all fairly perplexed about it and all regard it as out of character and a management issue, not a team issue.

given that this thread links with the stepney thread, not a bad idea to put them together.

either way, i'd hate to see this overshadow an intriguing championship as it unfolds...