Uh...this is not good for you Mclaren fans.................. Coughlan names names Thursday 13th September 2007 FROM PLANET F1; Mike Coughlan has finally spoken publicly about the Stepneygate scandal, saying he did receive Ferrari's secrets from Nigel Stepney and he did tell McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh's about it and even drew drawings for Paddy Lowe, McLaren's engineering director. As McLaren face the FIA's World Motor Sport Council in Paris today, Coughlan has publicly revealed potentially damning evidence against McLaren, who suspended him after the scandal broke. Coughlan has revealed that it was Stepney, Ferrari's sacked chief mechanic, who provided him with the Scuderia's secrets back in mid-March of this year. Stepney, though, has denied this all along. "He is not a close friend," Coughlan told Autosport. "We are acquaintances who are both in the business of Formula One and have maintained cordial relations over the years. "Stepney contacted me for the first time in five years on March 1st 2007. "He subsequently telephoned me and informed me that he was very unhappy with the direction his career was taking at Ferrari and Mr Almondo's promotion above him. "But he did not pass any technical information about Ferrari to me until mid-March 2007." However, once he did pass that information to Coughlan, the Brit showed it to McLaren, something the Woking team has claimed never happened. The information included designs of Ferrari's floor device, a rear wing flap separator, and a technique to lower the floor of the car. "Details of the floor device were sent to me by email to my McLaren work email address," Coughlan continued. "I showed the email fleetingly to Martin Whitmarsh, who asked me to take up the issue with Paddy Lowe, McLaren's engineering director. "I produced a schematic drawing for Lowe, which I understand he forwarded to the FIA. The FIA subsequently declared the floor device as falling outside the regulations. "Details of the rear wing device were also sent by email to me. I briefly showed this email to Lowe. I understand he reported this to Charlie Whiting of the FIA at the Melbourne Grand Prix, but he was of the opinion that the design was legal. "As for the information about the subtle engineering technique, I felt it was inconsequential and so I did not show these details to anyone." An attack of conscience in April though, led to McLaren setting up a firewall to block any emails from Stepney and Coughlan arranging to meet Stepney to ask him to "stop communicating to me any further." However, that meeting instead led to Stepney handing Coughlan a "bundle of documents which he asked me to look at. My engineering curiosity got the better of me and I foolishly took the documents from him. "I casually flicked through them over the course of 25 minutes or so the journey took for Stepney to drive me to the airport. I kept hold of the documents and took them home with me. I did not look further at the documents that weekend." In fact Coughlan is adamant that he ever barely looked at the material handed to him by Stepney. "I looked at the papers given to me by Stepney on only a few occasions," he stated. "Certainly the time I spent looking at them in total between receiving them and the search at my house on July 3rd was no more than one to two hours. "I did not look at them in a discursive or methodical way, nor did I look at all of the documents. "In the limited period of time I spent reviewing the documents, it was not possible to glean anything that would be of material use to McLaren that we did not already know from our own observation and photographs of Ferrari's car." However, whether the FIA will believe that won't be known until later this afternoon. Post to del.icio.us
Coughlan apologises to Ferrari Thursday 13th September 2007 FROM PLANET F1 Mike Coughlan has apologised for his actions in the Stepneygate scandal, saying he "sincerely regrets" accepting Ferrari secrets. Speaking publicly for the first time in months, Coughlan has admitted to obtaining Ferrari documents from Nigel Stepney, although claims he did little more than page through them. However, that was enough to put McLaren's participation in the F1 World Championship at risk as well as bring an end to his own future in motorsport. "I sincerely regret my actions in accepting the information from Stepney and the fact that I did not take more steps to stop him providing this information to me," Coughlan told Autosport. "With the benefit of hindsight, I can now see how I should have handled matters very differently, but at the time, having found myself in an uncomfortable and difficult position, my indecision as to how best to deal with this led me to fail to take proper action at all. "I wish to apologise to Ferrari. My passion and enthusiasm for race-car engineering design has caused me to exercise poor judgement in my dealings with Mr Stepney. "I enormously regret the unfair embarrassment I have caused to McLaren and to my wife. "I can honestly say that McLaren received no benefit whatsoever in relation to their car or any aspect of its performance and that no use of any of the material has been made in relation to the car."
Agreed quite interesting. Frankly Ron Dennis has nothing left to say about this. They should be penalized plain and simple...IF what is published is true. I know worse things have happend in F1 but Coughlan could have prevented this.
Well now we know how they REALLY found out about the flexi floor boards as well as the rumors that were in circulation about the Ferrari rear wing possibly being illegal........Its all slowly coming together isnt it?
McLaren disclosed how they knew about the flex-floor to the FIA in the first hearing. Read the meeting notes and Mosley's letter. Coughlan isn't saying anything new in these statements, other than it was Stepney who gave him the documents.
I wonder if British Labor law has anything to do with it, or perhaps clauses in his contract? They need to wait for him to be convicted in order to sack him.
Possible. McLaren also pays for his legal defense. Probably a clever move as they want him to have the best legal counsel money can buy.
So could have Stepney. Based on what Coughlan says, I am not so sure. He seems to support McLaren's claims...
No matter. The tenor of this and the accompanying apology only highlight the fact that the team KNEW. This contradicts RD completely and only shows the current- not fired engineer- has cost his team dearly(potentially), well within the rules of the FIA. If the matter was reversed we would offer your argument in defense of Ferrari and wrongly so. I hate this matter and its potential effect on the competition upcoming. I would hope Ferrari would be penalized as well in the reverse of this. Mclaren violated the rules was found guilty and the FIA left the matter open to new evidence and will rule accordingly. It is the system we are stuck with and it should penalize equally whether it be Ferrari or Mclaren. If in fact Mclaren suffer 6 races penalty I probably wont watch much. It bums me out to see Ferrari beaten this year but now I know in a sense it wasnt done fairly. Beyond that Ferrari wasn't reliable enough anyway. I for one will not relish a Ferrari victory this year if its handed to them in this way. It is tainted and not done squarely on the track. Bottom line Mr Coughlan could have prevented this spectacle by not handling it in the manner in which he did. The fact that he has not been fired burns me up the most. RD words of his team not knowing also anger me. He is simply lying to protect his ego. He has never come clean on this and made it more painful for his team and F1 fans in general.
Thank you. I would assume that was obvious. Hence Mr Coughlans apology to the Scuderia. Long overdue.
The reason he was not fired is because Ron was trying to still make him feel like he was part of the team and not spill all the beans.
McLaren couldn't just fire Coughlin because they used his information. They could only have fired him IF at the time he showed that he had Ferrari's information....and they refused to see it....then they could have either ordered him to get rid of the information or fire him on the spot. IF they were to fire him on the spot...they would have had to PREVIOUSLY issue some kind of policy or statement to all employees stating that if anyone procures or accepts confidential information they will be terminated. We all kinda knew this was coming....I'm actually a bit nervous about all of this. I worry about F-1 in general as well as this racing season. But as has been said...this season is tainted already.
It looks to me as if some folks here have taken Coghlan's "confession and apology" hook, line, and sinker. If he is still under McLaren's pay, do you think they didn't write his statement and tell him when to release it to take the pressure off them at the most convenient moment? What about Alonso/DeLaRosa? Were the e-mails and testing just press hot air? Maybe, we'll find out soon. But it seems strange that Alonso is at the track. I can see McL offering him a deal to keep his mouth shut get out of his contract when the season if over. Given his relationship with the team right now I certainly wouldn't want him in the hearing. On the other hand, why wouldn't FIA demand his presence?
Coughlan is full of it. We are not talking about a child here from whom you take an apology and hope he'll learn. This guy is an engineer with leading team at the the most competitive form of motorsport and he claims he didn't know how conduct himself in such situation. Honestly I don't buy that. He know exactly what he was doing but what I find appalling is that the team played along.
My gut reaction is that I now have more respect for Alonso than ever. I think the bad feelings between him and McLaren have nothing to do with Hamilton... but everything to do with the spy stuff... I think once Alonso knew what was going on he wanted to blow the whistle ASAP... and come clean... McLaren most likely used some quieting tactic to keep him down... and I would not at all be suprise if Hamilton did not get preffered treatment.... and will still... its obvious that Hamilton is the McLaren guy, and Alonso is out of the fold... thats why he did the deal and gave up the info he had for immunity .... smart and honest guy. Basically Ron Dennis has built a Wall Street mentality at McLaren... win at all cost, and this is the **** that happens when you think like that... greed, and arrogance.... I beleive the statement is "pride commeth before the fall" Having your team suspended and having to pay a $100,000,000 Fine is a pretty big fall... and I would think there is more to come... Once Mercedes gets done with Dennis he is going to have to retire. even though Mercedes probabbly will not have much main street fall out, $100 Million will get their attention... thats a lot of money to have to make up and explain to German Unions... when growth is slowing and we are faces with a world wide recession in the next 18 months... its hard to justify why you are just throwing away that kind of money... Hope Ron has some good savings! Personally, I say good for him. Mclaren threw me out of their hospitality tent in Monza back in the 90's and were very rude... so I have always had a sore spot for them... ( I did have an FIA pass - had jumped in cause it was raining hard ) Poor old Ron.... mayby its true cheaters never prosper.
So basically the info was given after the MP4/22 was already designed since the first race was March 18th. Not sure how much info could've been added to their car to give it the pace it had on the Ferraris with the longer wheelbase. Looks like he used the data for the illegal floorboard bit for sure. Can't tell about the rest unless the documents come out that may describe more. Thanks Stepney for your sour grapes and nearly ruining the F1 season. I say "nearly" because thankfully the WDC points race is still intact. The only thing that really matters at the end.
