McLaren suspends key technical employee in ferrari probe

A bit more from the Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/sport/2007/07/03/umracing103.xml




McLaren suspend employee for Ferrari dealings
By Telegraph online and agencies
Last Updated: 5:24pm BST 03/07/2007



McLaren have said they have suspended a senior technical employee after discovering that he had received information from Ferrari.

The Formula One team confirmed in a statement: "McLaren became aware on July 3, 2007 that a senior member of its technical organisation was the subject of a Ferrari investigation regarding the receipt of technical information.

"The team has learnt that this individual had personally received a package of technical information from a Ferrari employee at the end of April.

"Whilst McLaren has no involvement in the matter and condemns such actions it will fully co-operate with any investigation.

"The individual has in the meanwhile been suspended by the company pending a full and proper investigation of the matter. No further comment will be made."

McLaren and Ferrari are battling it out at the top of the Constructors Championship this season.

Ferrari have closed the gap on their rivals to 25 points following their one-two victory at the French Grand Prix at the weekend.

 

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/60464

one thing that is very interesting is that Mclaren received info around april which explains their "revival"

 

IMO all speculation until we see some real proof.

 

Not good.

 

Is Mclaren really that desperate?

 

Actually not, which is why they did the right thing and suspended that guy. Sounds more like an inside deal between two guys (one from McLaren and one from Ferrari). One to get revenge, the other to further his career.

 

found this on speedtv forum
http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/sport/formel_1/hxcms_article_505201_14148.hbs

The German media is reporting that the McLaren employee involved is none other than Mike Coughlan.

it gets better http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/60465

looks bad for Mclaren if this is true. chief designer involved......thats pretty bad.

 

The auto-motor-sport article answers your question: He was a leading manager in the technical design office. He and Stepney know each other for 17 years when they were both working for Barnard.

According to this report, Stepney gave the package with information to Coughlan. Both have now been fired and are under investigation.

 

Great now they get to hire Geoff Willis hopefully.

 

“McLaren became aware on 3rd July 2007 that a senior member of its technical organisation was the subject of a Ferrari investigation regarding the receipt of technical information.

“The team has learnt that this individual had personally received a package of technical information from a Ferrari employee at the end of April.

“Whilst McLaren has no involvement in the matter and condemns such actions it will fully co-operate with any investigation.

“The individual has in the meanwhile been suspended by the company pending a full and proper investigation of the matter.

 

Wow. This is terrible, not only for Ferrari, McLaren but for Formula One in general. If this turns out to be true, wonder what type of sanctions if/will FIA hand out to McLaren, will all their results from this year be DQ & omitted....

 

...first we had Toyota, then Mclaren?

No wonder Ross Brawn said shortly after his retire, he was tired of seeing Ferrari leading but all the rest copying their developments instead of making new ones...copying is perennial in F1 but I thought it was harder to do...

I thought he was exagerating...

 

I doubt that FIA will do anything before courts will make their decision. And that will take time.
Look at Toyota case.

 

This is very serious stuff and if the stolen designs just happened to have been implimented on the Maclaren cars then they should be expelled from the remaining races and all points thus far recorded removed. I have been wondering all this season how the Macs improved so fast when they remained frozen for the last 3 or 4 years.

 

A search warrant executed at Coughlan's home with positive results... Hmmmm.

"Did the right thing?" or.... were they trying desperately to save face, damage control with the high probability of legal charges and/or FIA sanctions against them in the near future.

I wonder if Stepney was also responsible for the trashing of the wind tunnel at Maranello. It makes you pause to think, doesn't it? A lot has changed in the last few months.

 

Most likely...since after Brawn retired, he was "promoted" to a different team position, one that he didnt wanted (and one with marginal learning about the new designs on track), the new position didnt involved travelling to the GP weekend along with the rest of the technical team...new guys with new team...this guy was left in the middle asking for the Technical Director Gig...they put an Italian instead and Stepney got pissed off...but still under contract so...he thought Ferrari must pay...

I guess is not very far fetched to think that he was responsible for both...and now that a top designer at McLaren is in this too, one can understand why they got used to the new tire so quickly...

...and remember Ron Dennis is no gentleman, if the info falls in his hands, he´ll use it without blinking, and then call it "nonsense" or "rubbish"...

If there´s a McLaren top engineer involved, I wouldnt be surprised.

 

The plot thickens

 

Boy our little minds are making a lot of possibly libelous claims. Now suddenly Stepney’s responsible for trashing the wind tunnel? Once again, I think we should keep the conjecture to a minimum and let’s see what allegations Ferrari level at him.

 

Are you a personal friend of Ron Dennis and can say what he may or maynot do? Same with Nigel??? Familiar with defamation of character??

Carol

Charles, your post #21 above mine is absolutely correct and stated perfectly.

 

+1

Lets see what happens.

 

RELAX!...I agree that we need to wait, and that we need hard proof too.

I dont like Ron Dennis for many reasons...I said I wouldnt be surprised if they are involved given the things they´ve done in the past...

Back in the Hakkinen-Schumacher times, They would use every trick in the book to keep Ferrari behind... just as in INDY David Coulthard Jumping the start despite the later obvious penalty just to retain Schumacher cause he was on pole a lot lighter, so Hakkinen will catch up from 3rd on a heavy load...

...or maybe then in the same year 3 computers from underneath the seat at hakkinens car got "unplugged" without the driver having access to them during the race...Hakinnen won, but only drivers points were awarded, constructors were taken away...

I´m not gossiping, it has happened before, the sources on the Stepney case come from INSIDE the team...not to mention NOW there´s a senior McLaren engineer involved and confirmed having ferrari material, and receiving it from a ferrari worker...do the math!

we are ALL speculating on this...dont get too touchy!!!...but things start to point somewhere...

From what I´ve seen in the past comming from Ron Dennis and his ways of "cutting chicanes". I wouldnt be surprised.

this is F1...the great circus is at full.

 

I really think this was the action of the two desperate man. One to take revenge and one to better his career.

Interestingly enough the auto-motor-sport article makes the point that whatever data Stepney transferred it mostly was useless to McLaren because the two chassis are so different, particularly with the Ferrari having a longer wheelbase.

In a way I tend to agree with this: Engine and tranny data would be useless as they have different engines. Most of the brakes etc data is based on standard components. Aero data gets outdated fast, is car dependant and for the most part you can see the competitor's cars at the track anyway. Just copying one wing and attaching to your car doesn't do anything unless you have the identical chassis and those are carved in stone or carbon fibre and have first to get homologated by the FIA for a crash test.

Unless it is some ingenious invention like eg. Renault's mass damper from last year, there isn't much you can copy/steal. And I'm sure even there it is good enough to just steal the idea as you see it and develop the part yourself. It took the other teams roughly 6 months before they copied Chapman's wing car, which debuted in mid 78. Today's development cycles are even shorter.

While I believe Stepney was handing those papers over, I really doubt they did McLaren any good and I don't see that any of the current points or standings will change as a consequence.