You can obtain a copy from the Chancellery of the High Court in London for a little over 5 pounds since it is public information. There is revealing information: 1) The following McLaren employees saw the documents and did not advise to destroy them: Martin Whitmarsh, Paddy Lowe, Jonathan Neale and Rob Taylor ( the chief designer and a new name). 2) Following the Australia Grand Prix MC lodged a protest for the floor deflection based on information passed on to Coughlan who then shows it to Whitmarsh who suggests to give it to Paddy Lowe (who ultimately files the protest). Together with these drawings of the floor MC is also provided with those of the rear wing. 3) On the 28th of April Stepney gives the design of the Ferrari brakes which was followed in Barcellona by the 780 pages document. This is a real treasure as they contain designs of the F1 2006 and 2007, reports, techincal info on aerodynamics, suspensions, transmission, hydraulics and water, gas and oil systems and even detailed records of budgets and transportation expenses (all that is necessary to design, build, test and develop a F1 car). 4) May 25th Coughlan shows 2 pages of the documents to Neale and on June 11 Coughlan's wife goes to the copy store and the scandal develops as Ferrari is informed by a suspicious employee of that store via email. 5) Ferrari claims that if they loose the championship it will cost them 5.5 million euros and state that it is evident that the MC extra points are due MC possessing confidential information.
Thank You for posting this information. After reading it I feel like going outside and throwing up.....! The competition in F-1 is so fierce and tight when things are above board, but to possess this information about your biggest competitor, and use it to your advantage...it just makes me sick. Sadly Ferrari can't just toss everything out the window and re-invent the wheel at this point. The damage is done, and even if the information is gone, it's still in the memories of the engineers at McLaren. As for Mr. Stepney....a couple of broken-nosed guys in pin striped suits should pay him a visit..... This is just my rantings due to lack of coffee this morning...not to be taken seriously.
There was a 40 minutes lunch break before the hearing started again and Ron Dennis told the reporters that " I am going to take a short lunch but the proceedings are very tough".
Maybe the reliability problem exists because Ferrari were doing OK untill Mcliars got ahold of their designs and Ferrari was forced to scramble to new and untested ideas and designs.
I love that scene moretti...I just love it...A few good men? Even what the old man said was right, what he did was so wrong... Great movie quote...
,...thanks Ulmis...posting: FIA decides not to penalise McLaren Thursday, 26, July, 2007, 15:02 "The FIA World Motor Sport Council has decided not to impose any penalty on McLaren for possessing confidential Ferrari data. The governing body said that while there was no doubt that the team's chief designer Mike Coughlan had had access to the leaked information, there was no proof that McLaren had benefited in any way. But the FIA reserved the right to summon McLaren again if it emerged that the team had made use of the data. A statement issued by the FIA after the hearing said it would now pursue action against Coughlan and Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney, the other figure at the centre of the scandal." This is going to be one of those seasons in which everybody loose...
HAHAHAHAHAHA fairness has been non existant in F1 for a long time. Credibility and F1 don't even belong in the same sentence.
As I, and others on this board, have been stating for weeks and getting hammered for it. Coughlan is a rogue and McLaren is found to be innocent. Apologies are owed to many. Vindication is sweet. Now let's get back to racing.
How did the board judge on the connection between McLaren employees having the Ferrari-documents in their possesion, and the succesful protest against the Ferrari movable floor in Australia? Surely, this means that McLaren has benefited from the possesion of the Ferrari-documents even if they haven´t used their information to improve their own cars? It looks like the board feels there is insufficient evidence at this moment, but isn´t dismissing the possibility that in the future, things will be different.
Luigi Macaluso (Member Fia Council): “There was no proof that the McLaren in any way were advantaged”. It is the comment of Luigi Macaluso, the new president of the Csai, exiting the world-wide Council of the Fia, in which he participated as a voting member. “This was a technical reunion - he specified - and a very professional one. The fact is there was no obvious proof against the McLaren and the justice system will be take care of the single persons involved ”. Macaluso has then emphasized that he believes from the decision today “There will not be a lack of credibility of Formula 1 ”, “The FIA effectively concluded that the proof was not there. Saying, there has been an obvious transfer of information and there is no doubt about it. This transfer of information is for me a very serious one. Appealable decision? It is all appealable”. Felipe Massa: “It is not for me to make judgments, I am here only to drive the machine" was FM only comment to the sentence of the Fia. No comments from any of the Ferrari personnel.
These things happen - How else did Ferrari knew what kind of alloys were used in Mercedes engine in 2000 ? This rule came about because Ferrari discovered that Illmor were using a beryllium-aluminium alloy in the Mercedes engine, for either pistons or liners, and did not want to have to follow suit. http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ft00352.html
FERRARI: “DANGEROUS PRECEDENT” - the Ferrari has commented saying that the sentence of the Fia creates “ a very serious precedence and one that puts in doubt the credibility of the sport”.
Luca di Montezemolo is furious and attacks the FIA sentence " it means that the possession and use of information collected illicitly does not represent a sanctionable violation but states a recourse is not planned. "It should be remembered that the fact that the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes was in possession of such information was uncovered only accidentally and absent of that the team would have continued to have it. Even more extremely serious is the fact that this happened in a sport such as the Formula One, in which the minute details are the ones that make the difference". "Ferrari thinks that all this is strongly prejudicial for the credibility of this sport. Ferrari will continue the civil legal action in England and the criminal investigation will continue in Italy.
It is interesting to note that Ferrari in their civil lawsuit do not use the McLaren name alone but involve their sponsors as well "Vodaphone-Mclaren-Merceds".
