McLaren suspends key technical employee in ferrari probe

+1 I feel bad for anyone unknowingly affected by all of this.

+1 I would also hope this, but from their scrambling around, spinning the media and covering their as*es, it looks a bit suspicious to me.

 

They're in dammage control mode. SOP for any corporation. What do you expect them to do, nothing? They look suspicious either way.

 

Wrong...There is no need to prove intent, in the case of receiving or possessing stolen property. The charge is simply receipt and/or possession, not conspiracy.

I won't even respond to the rest of your post, as it has no relevance to the subject at all.

 

MCL could ultimately fire Coughlan and make restitution to SF for damages and legal expenses. I suspect they have enough facts to fire Coughlan now.

 

...I´ll call you...accurate.

All that is based on the facts to date, and conjectures to connect those events in the light of shown tendence and evidence.

I like that kind of theories.

 

Well, it seems they have "suspended" him - That has got to hurt in the middle of the season and I can't imagine it was a knee jerk reaction - If they could have found a "fall guy" I'm sure they would have done so in order to keep their chief designer around.

Yep, they're covering their collective backsides - What else can they do?

Ian

 

It's not like they had a choice..... They found the documents in his house !!!!

So it's CYA on everything else, A CIA caliber sweep at the McLaren HQ and now...

"Sure you guys can come by anytime, have some tea and a little look-see, we show you... we know nut-ting !!"

 

you need to look up the word fair in a dictionary

 

so who carried out the alleged search of coughlins house then ?

in the uk such searches come under the sole jurisdiction of the police.

 

I looked it up: Fair... in accordance with the RULES.

So what do the rules say?

 

I would think that forfeiting the points McLaren has amassed, in the races since the end of April (when Coughlan rec'd the documents), would be closer to appearing "fair."

 

Espionage once again reared its ugly head yesterday, when it was revealed that nobody at all was spying on the Spyker team.

Sabotage has also been ruled out for the Dutch squad, with one source suggesting that following his bizarre exit from the French Grand Prix, Christijan Albers was managing that side of things pretty well on his own

 

Interesting point - We know his house was searched, and "stuff" was found - Maybe the English cops were simply "helping out" their (presumably Italian) counterparts who are actually doing the investigation.

BTW - "Sole jurisdiction of the police" is not quite true - Various 3-letter agencies (that may or may not actually exist) can also perform searches with a valid warrant. [I could explain more, but then I'd have to shoot you ]

 

I think this will be the minimal situation if Stepney wasn't paid by McLaren. Since Coughlin is the chief engineer, the FIA will be forced to assume he influenced the races due to priveleged info (can't prove if he did or didn't).

I think it SUCKS big time. I think the season has been intriguing for all the right reasons (is Massa better than Kimi, where did Hamilton come from, does McLaren love LH more than FA, why is Spyker on the grid and when will it lose Albers and Sutil, etc) and this kind of crap screws with the integrity of the sport. There's no doubt some sort of conspiracy was going on, but we all have to hope it was simply bad judgement by two people and not involving the entire McLaren organization.

 

The search warrant was issued by the High Court and executed by police.


`Police raid found Ferrari documents at McLaren designer`s home`
Wednesday 4th July 2007" - Planet f1.com
http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3213_2466612,00.html

""Incriminating evidence discovered during a police raid on the Surrey home of Mike Coughlan is reported to have resulted in the McLaren designer's suspension and sparked the most sensational case of F1 espionage in recent memory.

Having already launched legal proceedings against Nigel Stepney, the team's British-born mechanic, after accusing him of sabotaging their own cars, Ferrari applied for a search warrant through the British courts, claiming that 'a large amount of technical information' had been stolen from their Maranello factory.

The raid on Coughlan's home, near to McLaren's Woking base, is reported by The Times to have uncovered 'documents belonging to Ferrari'.


"We have proof that Stepney had been supplying technical information to a McLaren employee," a Ferrari spokesman said.

"A search was carried out of the (McLaren) engineer's house, where we found this information," he added.

"This is a very serious situation. We are talking about a lot of information being given to a prominent McLaren engineer. We are not talking about rumours or speculation."

In a separate statement, McLaren confirmed that they had suspended 'a senior member of its technical organisation' after learning 'that this individual had personally received a package of technical information from a Ferrari employee at the end of April'."
.

 

LOL!

Actually Spyker does have real secrets in their cars because they have the same engine as the factory Ferraris.

Speaking of Spyker: They will bring out a new model later this season (probably for the German GP).

 

...O.K...O.K....no driver punishment...only constructors then!

 

Your right its big news on the main news channels here as well ,they
just interviewed Eddie Jordon (top bloke) He said Mclaren and Ferrari have been at each others throats for years and this one will run and run and run

 

Eddie Jordan a top bloke?

 

I cannot and will not comment on the legal/punishment side of all this as I (and everyone at F-Chat) have no clue as to what the real story is or how the investigation is going. Let the system work thru the process. If there are legal and or rules violations/punishment, we will know when it is announced.

Now, as to the technical value of the data- No I do not know the specific information that "Mclaren" received, but as a a guy who designs race cars for a living, for a lot of differing customers, I can state that any information from a competitor car would be quite valuable. The difference in wheelbase, engine aero from one car to another is not enough to make the data irrelevent. Actually the differences in the cars can make the information even more valuable, as now I have a number of new data points I didn't have before, and it shows me my competitor design philosophy and priorities, and the specific solutions to problems based on those design philosophies. I would always like to get any competitor data, of any type, to help me in my job.

 

Yes. But did Spyker know the secret of putting detergent in the fuel tanks?

 

Some folks believe the entire Spyker team is financed with white powder.

 

Well he was a maverick character in a big money sport just couldnt get enough of it so i like him for that.

but if you dont like him I dont HA HA

 

Yes and...

Without the owner of the data's permission it's called stealing.

SF claims they did not give anyone outside of SF (particularly MCL) to have the information.

 

I like Eddie actually. Just wouldn't call him a top bloke. The other team managers pulled the wool over his eyes in the MS transfer deal.