With no disrespect to Fernando Alonso or Michael Schumacher, the first eight races of this year's Formula 1 World Championship have probably been more entertaining on- and off-track than the previous four or five seasons combined. The latest shenanigans come via the two front running teams, McLaren and Ferrari. Ferrari has been saying for a while that someone gave away its technical secrets, finally fingering Technical Manager Nigel Stepney last month. Ferrari said it had evidence of illicit behavior, but Stepney claimed it wasn't him. Now it turns out that Michael Coughlin, Chief Designer at McLaren, has been suspended by the team for receiving Ferrari technical information, which was found when police searched his house. No one's been charged yet, but Stepney and Coughlin have known each other for 17 years, and Stepney was miffed last year at not being promoted by Ferrari to fill Ross Brawn's shoes. McLaren, meanwhile, says it has conducted a thorough investigation and found that no Ferrari information was given to any other team member or used in the design of its cars. The FIA is now investigating.
[Source: F1 Technical]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Travis Rassat @ Jul 5th 2007 11:21AM
This has been a very exciting year in F1 and I just hope that the outcome of this doesn't take away from the more positive reasons that F1 has been exciting. There's been so much to talk about - Lewis Hamilton's incredible performance thus far, Kimi's move to Ferrari, Fernando's move to McLaren, the improvements in some of the other teams, etc.
Michael @ Jul 5th 2007 11:21AM
Thing is, your reporting is a bit off. First, an internal McLaren investigation found that no Ferrari information passed directly to the team, supposedly remaining at Michael Coughlin's residence. Second, the British police stated they never searched Coughlin's house...which leads us to think private investigators or Ferrari henchmen did some snooping of their own.
The article should be updated to reflect the current situation.
B.D. Ize @ Jul 5th 2007 11:40AM
Michael-
Quote your source, or don't respond to the article. Your information may be accurate, but without a source it can't be verified - therefore is worthless.
The way you worded your reply, I would guess you were a McLaren fanboy.
Solo Racer @ Jul 5th 2007 11:42AM
Michael's post is backed up here, in a statement from Ferrari:
http://www.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/070705150201.shtml
Dr. Greenthumb @ Jul 5th 2007 12:04PM
http://www.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/070705150201.shtml
In what could become one of the biggest scandals in recent times within Formula One, the Ferrari team revealed today that they received a tip off from someone outside of the sport regarding the alleged transfer of team information. The following is a press release from the Italian team.
'Ferrari wishes to clarify that the English police have so far not been involved in investigating the theft of technical information.'
'It was brought to Ferrari's attention by a third party outside Formula 1 racing within the last fortnight, that a senior member of the technical staff within the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team might be in possession of highly sensitive Ferrari information. ' 'Ferrari reviewed the evidence and consulted London lawyers towards the end of last week.
'
'Ferrari then made an urgent application to the High Court in London on 2 July for the court's assistance.'
'As is usual with this kind of court order, Ferrari is currently prevented by the court from making any public statement about the information that it gained as a result of serving the court order.'
'At the same time, an investigation is being carried out into the same subject by the Modena Court, therefore no further comment will be forthcoming, in order to respect the legal process in both countries.'
JRR @ Jul 5th 2007 12:24PM
In the post I do say that no information was passed to any other member of the team or found its way into the cars. As to the involvement of the police, it appears there are two sites reporting two different things. If you go here, http://www.f1technical.net/news/6300, the Ferrari statement says a search warrant was issued and it had a positive outcome. I have no idea if F1 Technical or Daily F1 is correct, but I suppose we'll find out soon enough.
Mike @ Jul 5th 2007 11:45AM
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/60502
B.D. Ize @ Jul 5th 2007 11:58AM
Thank you both for providing links to these articles. My gripe is when someone makes a statement without quoting a source.
Bob-o @ Jul 5th 2007 3:49PM
Sheesh. It's like you're out on a witchhunt.
Here's a better explanation.
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns19356.html
Chris @ Jul 6th 2007 12:31PM
Schumacher retired last year. Where have you been?