Thursday, September 13th, the World Motor Sport Council will meet to decide on whether McLaren should be punished for industrial espionage in the Stepneygate affair. What had been winding its way to a peaceful conclusion has now been blown back open with the recent revelation that the drivers exchanged information that came from the Ferrari dossier in McLaren's possession.
Some newspapers claim that in the 166 pages of new evidence is enough damaging material that McLaren and its drivers could be excluded from the 2007 F1 World Championship. McLaren boss Ron Dennis has claimed that no one else in the team knew about the dossier -- and this was before it was revealed that the drivers knew. Now it's claimed that not only did the drivers know, but McLaren actually tried some of Ferrari's technical innovations on its car. Ron Dennis is also accused of trying to bring Renault into the affair, but it is unclear how. If things go against McLaren, the Championship-leading team and its drivers could face exclusion from the Championship this year and beyond.
[Source: Daily F1]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Phil @ Sep 12th 2007 7:14PM
Once again Max and co find a way to screw a perfectly good season with politics. They need to realise that excluding McLaren from this year will be far more damaging to the sport than any amount of industrial espionage.
MK @ Sep 13th 2007 9:58AM
I don't think it has to do with politics. If it's *proven* that McLaren used the Ferrari data (either in test or on the race-spec car), then that is just plain cheating. You could make the argument that copying parts from other team's cars happens all the time (viking horns on McLaren & then BMW). But this involves gaining access to non-visible advances from another team, maybe utilizing them, and then lying about the knowledge of the data.
Though, I agree that Championship exclusion is a bit harsh! I remember a couple years ago when Honda had their fuel cell scandal, and were suspended 2 races. Plus, punishing the drivers isn't right. Perhaps, a constructor points ban for the remainder of the season would serve to better hit McLaren where it hurts. The driver will be a champion regardless which team he's with, but the teams are after the constructor's trophy. Plus, this is one of the better seasons -- 4 drivers with a chance to win, and none of them name Schumacher.
Nick @ Sep 12th 2007 7:18PM
Well. That certainly sounds bad. If those new allegations are true, they probably deserve banning.
Tammy @ Sep 12th 2007 7:58PM
The punishment should be to exclude Alonso from the championship.
If Lewis Hamilton is screwed out of the championship, F1 is gonna lose a lot of fans. He's already been screwed out of a couple of wins based on team orders and crap pulled by Alonso.
juanjux @ Sep 12th 2007 8:10PM
Alonso being favored instead of Hamilton? You must be joking. The one to ban is Hamilton because he's the one that didn't cooperate with the investigation.
K @ Sep 12th 2007 8:18PM
The point is that Alonso knew, and yet he chose to keep it to himself until his ass was threatened. Just goes to show what kind of a personality he is.
Alan @ Sep 12th 2007 9:50PM
You do realize that the reason Lewis isn't doing as well now is that Alonso isn't sharing his set-up information...Alonso deserves to be champion, as long as McLaren isn't a bunch of dirty cheaters which remains to be seen.
Solo Racer @ Sep 12th 2007 11:56PM
You're daft! Hamilton's got the same advantages as Alonso. As for Alonso not saying anything the dossier, what's he supposed to do? Post on Autoblog? Most of these reports are so completely partisan and biased it's hard to take them seriously.
If Mosley and his mob ban McLaren, I won't watch the rest of the season and probably never again. That's after following the sport for most of three decades. I'm tired Mad Max's bullshit. He and Bernie have become worse than the people they overthrew to take control of the sport 25 years ago. Mosley's vendetta against Ron Dennis is the kind of unseemly old grudge that should preclude Max from being in charge of a carnival go-kart track.
Mr. Oak @ Sep 13th 2007 10:28AM
With you on that one Tammy. The screwing Lewis out of the Championship part. F1 fan since the days of Jimmy Clark. Suddenly NASCRAP makes more sense.
Disagree on who is being favored by the team. However if Lewis is being favored, it's because Alonso behaves like a complete jackass.
Js @ Sep 12th 2007 7:58PM
WoW ! I was already surprised that McLaren got away with just a slap on the wrist... but this is really shocking.
Espionage is a serious offense, and if McLaren needs to steal Ferrari's secrets to win then they don't deserve to race in my opinion. Shame because they have the talent in house and careers have been destroyed for less....
But I guess you have to pay the price for cheating..
K @ Sep 12th 2007 8:01PM
This is all a setup by Ferrari. Ferrari's tactics when they have been losing in the past has been really questionable.
Nick @ Sep 12th 2007 8:32PM
The real question is who in the world really cars about any of this? The great unwashed in Europe? I'd rather see Billy Bob turn left on Saturday night than the Eurotrash processions that F1 calls "racing".
Frustrated Consumer @ Sep 12th 2007 9:38PM
It's the number two sport on the planet, just slightly behind soccer.
The real question is how you garnered your arrogant attitude without any substance to back it up.
Oh, that's right, you're American.
Never mind...
Nick @ Sep 12th 2007 11:19PM
You use sport in the loosest possible terms, I take it? The word you're looking for is parade...
Vega @ Sep 13th 2007 1:17AM
So you'd rather watch redneck white trash Billy Bob turn left in a 50s-vintage car driving in the WWF that is stock car racing than the precision racing in the world's most advanced race cars.. whatever floats your boat.
Bruiser @ Sep 13th 2007 2:23AM
I love it when the F1 girls get their panties in bunch when someone takes a shot at it! Its even better when the same people who refer to NASCAR fans as"rednecks, inbreds, and white trash" get mad when someone calls their fans "eurotrash" and refer to them as "ignorant"! What a damn joke, grown up and take it just as many of you dish it out because it is true NASCAR drives in circles and F1 is nothing more than a 180mph parade lap.
Oh thats right, there's "strategy" in F1 because its sooo critical when the leader is 15 seconds ahead of second place. I am sure glad those million dollar go-carts have all those computers to figure out what to do on the next pit stop!
"The real question is how you garnered your arrogant attitude without any substance to back it up.
Oh, that's right, you're American.
Never mind..."
Thats the stupidest comment since I saw "Oh, thats' right, you're European so you must be queer."
Its f'n car racing!
Tagg @ Sep 13th 2007 2:41AM
Pretty harsh Brusier but partly true. You don't understand that people are naturally stupid and see it when they call NASCAR fans "hicks" is ok and when F1 is under attack they're "ignorant". God knows there are NO ignorant F1 fans but I am not God by any means and I know there are, I sat with a bunch at the U.S. Grand Prix this year from Spain! They were absolutely obnoxious with the body odor of a dead cow and the blood alcohol content of Lindsay Lohan at 3:30am.
Bruiser @ Sep 13th 2007 2:49AM
I suppose but I am tired of people on here and in general thinking their opinion is the only one that's right and thats makes them better. The whole "I like F1 so I am better than anyone who watches the NASCAR!" thinking is getting old on this site. Its kind of like the "I like Subaru or Mitsubishi because they make cars for enthusiasts" (stupidiest word on the website) completely ignoring the fact that Subaru and Mitsubishi don't sell for crap in the U.S.
I guess I just wanted to vent and this post offered me the chance with that idiots reply to the post.
David Wiles @ Sep 12th 2007 8:34PM
The big picture is this. If F1 throws this season down the toilet by barring McLaren from further participation, there will no more reason for anyone to go to or watch this year's remaining races. Ferrari will run 1-2 for the remainder of the season winning each race by 40 seconds or more and there will be as little to reason to watch that as there was to watch INDY the year only six cars ran.
This is one of the most competitive seasons in years in F1 and if it ends now in a court of law instead of on the track, watch and see how the sponsors and manufacturers whose money makes this whole thing go react. What will Mercedes do for example? Stay or go? Will the corporate bigwigs decide that the political mess that F1 has become is still worth investing in or move their money elsewhere as they are moving out of bicycle racing after the Tour de France disaster? Why, if the championship is handed to Ferrari for whatever reason no matter how justified, should the also- runs at Honda, Toyota, BMW and Renault continue to pour their money into what in effect becomes Fiat's advertising budget. What's in it for them? And why shouldn't they expect the same thing to happen to them later on when they threaten Ferrari's dominance?
Even assuming McLaren's guilt, these questions remain. And everyone can howl all they want about cheating and fairness and McLaren deserves whatever they get. At the end of the day big, big, money funds this sport and big money will decide whether or not it wants to fund a one make series for Ferrari or move on to something else.
My prediction; if McLaren is banished, the constructor's group will go ahead and start their own series and leave F1 to Ferrari, Redbull and Toro Rosso.
Alex @ Sep 12th 2007 9:18PM
short in the long of it: "At the end of the day big, big, money funds this sport and big money will decide"