Ferrari/McLaren Espionage Story [merged]

Will Lewis or Fernando loose there points?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FIA

Will Lewis or Fernando loose there points?

---

If that happens then the sport is dead in the water.

How many of you would watch the rest of the season?
I sure wouldn't, there is no point. The current championship is making me look forward to the next race.

All this controversy has done is belittle the achievements done by McLaren. Even if they win the WDC or WCC there will be a suspicion over their success.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ian McC

So he prints it at home and then sends his wife down to the local shops to copy more. For a man that has risen to the position of chief designer of a major F1 team he doesn't strike me as someone who is very bright.

---

Spot on....this does not make sense.
why would someone of his supposed intelligence ever go through with this...in his own home?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AJP

Spot on....this does not make sense.
why would someone of his supposed intelligence ever go through with this...in his own home?

---

The rumours are that the pages were A0 size and therefore they couldn't just copy it on a normal copier.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dylan H

The rumours are that the pages were A0 size and therefore they couldn't just copy it on a normal copier.

---

This is a catastrophic brain fade if any of this is true...
who in their right mind would try something like this and send the wife out with the shopping to get an extra copy while she is down at the shops...very fishy with devasting effects on the sport of F1...
I for one will not be watching the sport if McLaren are kicked out. I'm sick of watching a one horse race.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gannex

Didn't investigate? Tell that to Angelo Santini and Mauro Iacconi, the former Ferrari employees sent to prison for having betrayed Ferrari's secrets to Toyota. I don't know whether they're out yet, but I do know that they'd tell you the Toyota affair was very thoroughly investigated.

This affair is not much different. The important question is the same: how much were the receiving team to blame, or instrumental in the obtaining of their competitor's secrets? And did they make use of them? So far, McLaren are looking pretty good, I'd say. I think (and hope) that in a year or two McLaren will be in the position of Toyota, obviously innocent victims of rambunctious employees who were properly, quickly fired.

---

Those two were investigated and imprisoned (IIRC) by the German and Italian judicial systems.

The FIA didn't lift a finger over the case, despite it being a clear and legally proven case of industrial espionage. Toyota never faced the prospect of penalties.

Oh and I'm not certain about Toyota being an innocent victim, the two people involved had approached numerous other teams for employment and had made clear that they could bring Ferrari data. Its difficult to believe Toyota was the only team they forgot to tell about bringing information from Ferrari. The technical chief, chief designer and senior manager at the time of the scandal were very very quickly replaced.... There was considerably more evidence in the Toyota affair that the information from Ferrari was actually used to influence the cars design than in the current case.

These articles about the whole affair are very good.

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpa...s_art_id=26514
http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpa...s_art_id=23010
http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpa...s_art_id=10679
http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpa...s_art_id=10670
http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpa...s_art_id=10669

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ian McC

So he prints it at home and then sends his wife down to the local shops to copy more. For a man that has risen to the position of chief designer of a major F1 team he doesn't strike me as someone who is very bright.

---

Exactly!. In fact if this line of reasoning is correct he gets the data on disk and has capability to print an A0 size document at home - wow the cartridge re-fills for that printer must be like _buckets_. But even though he can apparently print them at home (for no good reason I can think of) he figures he needs more copies and instead of simply printing more he sends someone out to make photocopies. Brilliant, what does this guy do for a living?

Then we're told the the FIA says the 780 pages of documents contain enough information to build a 2007 Ferrari F1. Really?, I'd guess there are more than 780 different parts in the engine alone, so more than one part per page then?

I think Valve's suggestion that Elvis is involved has a reasonable chance of proving more credible.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Flat.tyres

I suppose we're all guilty of that to some extent.

.

---

NOT ME!! I have steadfastly held the line that Elvis may be the culprit, and in the end, I will be proven right. ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FIA

Will Lewis or Fernando loose there points?

---

I don't see how the McLaren drivers can be penalised for the alleged actions of a disgruntled Ferrari employee that set off this whole runaway train of events.

I doubt that any real action against McLaren will occur, mostly because it would be very difficult to prove any transfer of knowledge being implemented into the car. The reports of McLaren being excluded from the championship are just your normal tabloid journalist sensationalism which are only based on the fact that the FIA have it in thier power to do such a thing and that the FIA have not explicitally stated that they won't.

My personal slant is that Stepney and Coughlin were wanting to bail to another team, probably Honda and were wanting to transfer as much "knowledge" as possible, I have no doubt that this has happened before but this is the first time that it's all come out into the open, by the sounds of it probably due to indiscretion of both of the individuals involved.