Just like Ferrari, as soon as someone else starts to beat them they have to find something to shout about,and not for the first time.
Sour grapes

Michael Strange, Koh Samui, Thailand

Lack of Confidence in Mr Ecclestone.
Mr Ecclestone must lead a transparent and honest FIA . Any question like spying or illegal actions must be investigated until the end. McLaren Mercedes as a team must be penalized because of illegal acquisition of technical information from Ferrari even when the argue do not use it. McLaren stole information from another Team. Only this way all the people and public can trust in FIA management. Spying or illegal transfer of information is unacceptable in this sport or any other. If Mr Ecclestone approves or let this event withouth any penalty for McLaren, he is apporving illegal and corrupt activities inside FIA and Formula One.

Adrian Franco, Manchester, United Kingdom

Lack of Confidence in Mr Ecclestone.
Mr Ecclestone must lead a transparent and honest FIA . Any question like spying or illegal actions must be investigated until the end. McLaren Mercedes as a team must be penalized because of illegal acquisition of technical information from Ferrari even when the argue do not use it. McLaren stole information from another Team. Only this way all the people and public can trust in FIA management. Spying or illegal transfer of information is unacceptable in this sport or any other. If Mr Ecclestone approves or let this event withouth any penalty for McLaren, he is apporving illegal and corrupt activities inside FIA and Formula One.

Adrian Franco, Manchester, United Kingdom

I agree with GP Skeptic, McLaren will benefit from Ferrari's research & development and if so their drivers will benefit too. Last year some Italian football clubs were relegated because they were found guilty of influencing referees. One of the clubs, Juventus, had actually won the league but their players had to give their medals back even though as far as they were concerned they had won on the pitch. You cannot differentiate between drivers and teams in F1, if a team gains an unfair advantage the driver benefits too. In F1 if you have the wrong car you get nowhere as a driver. If McLaren must be punished then their drivers must be punished too. It would be a shame for the drivers as they have done nothing wrong but it would be fair. Mr Ecclestone's comments do nothing to improve F1's image, he implies it's ok to steal intellectual property so long as you do not use it.

Paul, London, UK

It seems that Mr. Ecclestone acts very defensively. Give time to the FIA to investigate.
What if Ferrari did it? those bloody italians...

Marco Giorgetti, London, U.K.

I can't believe Ecclestone said about the drawings " Did he know they were stolen when he received them?"
Sure, he bought them from Ebay !

I can see there is not much fairness to be expected from brittons, I'm not very proud.
Let's hope Mercedes will behave correctly and get off this championship. It's the best they can do for their image.
Sorry for Hamilton, he certainly has nothing to do with this, but at this point should he really be leading the championship?

Vincent Nardell, London, UK

Taking any points away from Hamilton would be jealousy. Would this speculation have aroused if lewis had not been in the driving seat, that is a question. Just let him get on with his job and deal with perpetrators whilst he claims the crown.

chris, chelmsford, essex

Even if the story is true, can anyone tell me what the hell it has to do with the FIA rule book?

Surely this is no more than a breach of employee confidentiality, and as such the complaint should be taken by Ferrari to an Italian court?

john, Bournemouth, UK

Lack of Confidence in Mr Ecclestone.
Mr Ecclestone must lead a transparent and honest FIA . Any question like spying or illegal actions must be investigated until the end. McLaren Mercedes as a team must be penalized because of illegal acquisition of technical information from Ferrari even when the argue do not use it. McLaren stole information from another Team. Only this way all the people and public can trust in FIA management. Spying or illegal transfer of information is unacceptable in this sport or any other. If Mr Ecclestone approves or let this event withouth any penalty for McLaren, he is apporving illegal and corrupt activities inside FIA and Formula One.

Adrian Franco, Manchester, United Kingdom

Since Ferrari were in dispute with Nigel Stepney who is to say that Ferrari bosses themselves did not send the alleged email/information themselves to tarnish Nigel Stepney and ensure he was unemployable and thus not take Ferrari expertise elsewhere ?. It would not take much for someone to use his email address at Ferrari and send to Mclaren themselves.
The full facts need to be known before any judgment could be made, as either or both could be completely innocent.

Simon, London, UK

Ecclestone is right, it has nothing to do with the driver, after all he won those two races driving his Yaris.

zed nero, Napoli,

What a dreadful first par. I had to read it four times before I could understand it.

H Wood, Grimsby,

It seems quite fatuous for Mr Ecclestone to claim that a driver should not have points deducted if, and it's a big "if" and unproven, a team had gained an unfair advantage this way. Perhaps he doesn't like to admit it, but probably 90% of race performance in a grand prix is down to the car, and the hundreds of millions thrown at it, and perhaps just the final 10% to the driver. This is pretty obvious when you see a driver of Button's calibre suddenly languishing in the lower half of the field, race after race. I would guess that for a car designer to see the results of another team's enormously costly research effort would at once profoundly influence his thinking, possibly providing new ways forward and /or indicating dead ends not to be pursued. Especially if the data in question came from the team that had the fastest car. But to actually prove or quantify this would be virtually impossible.
Maybe these things are ultimately decided behind the scenes by the power-brokers involved.

GP Skeptic, Welwyn Garden City,