Ron Dennis displayed a mixture of relief and indignation last night as he responded to the record fine and deduction of constructors’ points inflicted on his McLaren team by the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC).

The McLaren team principal denounced as unjust the ruling of the FIA here, but there was a sense that he had feared the outcome could have been even worse for the British team

Dennis had entered the hearing in the Place de la Concorde, where the guillotine worked overtime during the French Revolution, worried that his head and those of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were on the block. After ten hours of debate, his team emerged bloodied but still alive.

“The most important thing is that we are going motor racing this weekend, the rest of the season and every season,” he said. His words betrayed the concern in the McLaren camp that Hamilton and Alonso could effectively have been forced out of the race for the drivers’ title. They escaped the worst-case scenario and Dennis said: “Our drivers can continue to compete for the World Championship.”

He went on to proclaim McLaren’s innocence, as he has done since the start of the scandal, saying: “I do not accept that we deserved to be penalised or have our reputation damaged in this way.

“We have never denied that the information from Ferrari was in the personal possession of one of our employees at his home. The issue is, was this information used by McLaren? This is not the case and has not been proven today.”

Dennis sought to rebut claims that e-mail messages between his drivers had shown them to be aware of a “spying operation” against Ferrari. “The World Motor Sport Council received statements from Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Pedro De La Rosa [the test driver] stating categorically that no Ferrari information had been used by McLaren and that they had not passed any confidential data to the team,” he said.

It was a measure of the importance of the day to McLaren’s future that Dennis chose to read out a written statement to the press after the hearing. “I normally like to shoot from the hip, but I want to put a bit more discipline into what I say today,” he said.

The statement hinted that McLaren could have been the victim of a plot involving the two men who allegedly handled the 780-page dossier at the heart of the case — their former chief designer, Mike Coughlan, and Ferrari’s head of performance development, Nigel Stepney. “We do know that they were seeking employment with other teams,” it read.

Martin Whitmarsh, the McLaren chief executive, suggested that the team could appeal against the ruling, but said that their lawyers would need to study the written findings of the WMSC before making a final decision. “We believe we have grounds for appeal,” he said.

McLaren will pay financial penalties totalling $100 million (about £50 million) — about half from returned prizemoney and the rest in the form of a fine — but Dennis insisted that they could cope. “We have a turnover of $450 million to $500 million a year and we are debt-free. This is a very strong company,” he said.

He also insisted that he would continue at the helm of the team, rejecting rumours that he could be tempted to resign. “I’m committed to this company and I’m very passionate about motor racing,” he said.

Under the ruling, McLaren’s cars face an inspection next season to assess whether they have drawn on Ferrari technology. But Dennis dismissed the threat of a ban in 2008, saying: “There will be no issue.”

He had been accompanied by Hamilton for the first half of the hearing in what was seen as an attempt to highlight the stakes for Formula One’s newest star. Henrik Krauss, deputy vice-president of the FIA, indicated that Hamilton had said little. “He merely answered the lawyer’s questions,” Krauss said.

Dennis, on the other hand, had given an emotional defence in the face of the spying accusations, according to Krauss. “He was emotive, but there was no tension between McLaren and Ferrari,” he said. “This was a fair decision.”

Penalty clause

Previous heavy financial penalties handed out in Formula One

2006 Turkish Grand Prix organisers fined $2.5 million for allowing the Turkish Cypriot leader to present the winner’s prize.

2002 Ferrari and drivers Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello fined $1 million after Austrian Grand Prix, which Barrichello dominated but was ordered to let Schumacher win. Half the fine suspended for a year.

1. 1998 Hungarian Grand Prix organisers fined $1 million after track invasion.