Ferrari/McLaren Espionage Story [merged]

[Gannex]

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.

[Sleeper]

Read about this in Autosport this afternoon but it didnt mention Stepney. Thats quite a shock as I always thought he was a loyal Ferrari man. Is their anywere on the net that names him?

[Valve Bounce]

Here's the link :http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpa...s_art_id=31850

[wmcot]

Wow! Let's make sure we don't speculate too much on this one (I know that's asking a lot.) PitPass said that Ferrari wouldn't give out the details.

[ioan]

I suppose they did not want him to leave because he would have been a gain for other teams, so nothing mean there.
But why should he sell infos to other teams? I suppose it wasn't just about the money.

[Ranger]

Interesting. Why don't they just put him on gardening leave like every other sacked engineer of F1? That'd just bypass legal costs and the whole legal shenanigans.

[BDunnell]

Forgive my ignorance of these matters, but is there a criminal case to be heard in such circumstances? If so, what would it be? Is industrial espionage a criminal offence? I must say I've forgotten.

[andreag]

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.

To Toyota?

Last year?

That means the stolen secrets are part of this year's car.

What's the name of this "spy"? Maxwell Smart?

[Flat.tyres]

here we go again

The good old gossip section goes faster than any car I know

Besides, looking at the Toyota, if he had been accepting the brown bags, I think Toyota should sue him for breach of contract

[ioan]

Interesting. Why don't they just put him on gardening leave like every other sacked engineer of F1? That'd just bypass legal costs and the whole legal shenanigans.

You'll have to translate them yourselves (to long and have little time right now):
http://www.repubblica.it/2007/03/mot...i-esposto.html
http://www.gazzetta.it/Motori/Formul...tto_2206.shtml

They say it's about sabotage.