THE HEAD of Formula One’s governing body has contradicated the assertion of Bernie Ecclestone, the sport’s ringmaster, that Lewis Hamilton and his McLaren-Mercedes teammate Fernando Alonso would not be docked points over the Ferrari espionage affair.

Max Mosley, the head of the FIA, said yesterday that Ecclestone’s comments that even if McLaren were penalised the drivers would not be were “incorrect”. He continued: “I don’t want to speculate on what might happen, but it is only in the most exceptional circumstances that a penalty for a team is different from a penalty for the driver.”

He added that under Formula One regulations, teams were responsible for the actions of their employees.

Last week it emerged that Mike Coughlan, the McLaren chief designer, had been suspended over allegations that he was in possession of nearly 500 pages of documents with details of Ferrari’s operations. He was reportedly accused after an employee of a photocopying shop noticed documents with a Ferrari prancing horse logo being photocopied.

Ron Dennis, the McLaren team boss, last night responded to Mosley’s remarks by reasserting the innocence of his firm. “This is a matter for the individuals concerned and is outside the arena of the company. You can accurately say that it [the document] was in that person’s home, and nowhere near the company premises,” he said.

Ecclestone, who controls the sport’s commercial rights but does not oversee its rules and regulations, said last week that if McLaren was found guilty of any impropriety then the FIA “could take away constructors’ points from the team, but there is no way it would affect the driver. It is nothing to do with the driver. He gets into the car; he has no idea.”

In a separate development yesterday, Nigel Stepney, the Ferrari engineer accused of sabotaging his own team, indicated that he will sue his former employers for unfair dismissal and claimed that he had been hounded from his home in Italy after being constantly shadowed by men he did not recognise.

Speaking from a Mediterranean hideaway, he also said that he continued to believe he had been made a scapegoat and was prepared to reveal the secrets of his time at the team. “I’ve been framed,” he said. “I’ve been with Ferrari for 14 years and there’s been a lot of controversy over the years, and I obviously know where the bodies are buried.”

He added that he and his fiancée Ash and their baby daughter had fled from their home after being followed when out in their car by men who would not reveal their identity. “They aren’t journalists, and when we’ve cornered them they’ve refused to speak, and they have tracking equipment on my car,” he said. “They have made it impossible for me to stay in Italy.”

Stepney is being investigated by Italian police over claims that he had attempted to sabotage the Ferrari cars of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa before the Monaco Grand Prix in May. The engineer’s house in Italy has been searched twice.

He insisted yesterday that he had not been involved in any sabotage, nor any theft of documents from Ferrari. “I had been in the area of the factory where the so-called incident took place, as it is somewhere I had access to, but it is not true I did anything,” he said.

His lawyer, Sonia Bartolini, said last night: “We are going to fight this and it is to be expected that we will challenge Ferrari’s actions in dismissing Nigel. This cannot be left as it is.” Ferrari were unavailable for comment.

Stepney yesterday denied that he had passed any documents to Coughlan. “I have no idea how he got them, no idea at all,” he said. “We met at the end of April in Spain, just a catchup between old friends.” He added that that meeting had been witnessed by Mike Gascoigne, the Spyker technical director.

On Friday it was revealed that both Stepney and Coughlan had met Nick Fry, the team principal of Honda, at a Heathrow hotel on June 1. Stepney backed up Fry’s statement that it was simply a meeting about the men joining the team. “I went to Honda to discuss employment. At no time did I offer, and nor did Mike offer, any technical information to Nick. We didn’t need to,” he said.