Formula One is bracing itself for another spying scandal amid speculation that
secret technical information has been passed to the Renault team by a former
McLaren engineer. Sources at McLaren have long talked of a “bombshell” that
would further damage the credibility of a sport that is already in turmoil
after the swingeing fine imposed on the British-based team by the World
Motor Sport Council (WMSC) on Thursday.
Ron Dennis, McLaren’s team principal, is unlikely to appeal against the
punishment, citing the need for “complete closure in the interests of the
sport”. Yesterday, at the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa, informal meetings were
held between Dennis, Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley, president of the FIA,
the world governing body, to broker a truce as the spy war threatened to
spread beyond the feud between McLaren and Ferrari, who avenged last
weekend’s humiliation in Monza by monopolising the front row of the grid in
qualifying. A flying final lap by Kimi Raikkonen secured pole alongside
teammate Felipe Massa, with Fernando Alonso out-qualifying Hamilton for the
second race in succession.
The new allegations involve Phil Mackereth, a design engineer recruited from
McLaren, and three computer disks of technical data he reportedly took with
him to his new team. Renault insist the case is entirely different from
McLaren’s and that they have nothing to hide.
“If somebody tells me it’s the same [as McLaren], I sue,” said Renault boss
Flavio Briatore. “Secondly, it’s not an investigation regarding myself and
the team. Third, we have given all the information to the federation, at
least when we found out something. This is it. It’s as simple as that. And I
have given the evidence as well to McLaren.”
Despite Renault’s defence, the FIA will come under increasing pressure in the
wake of the £50m fine and a ban from this season’s constructors’
championship imposed by the council on McLaren to investigate other cases of
espionage. “If we are asked to investigate any allegations against another
team, we will,” said an FIA spokesman. As yet, no official complaint has
been made against Renault.
Although damning evidence was produced in the 10-hour WMSC hearing in Paris
implicating Pedro de la Rosa, the McLaren test driver, and Alonso, the world
champion, in the email correspondence with former chief designer Mike
Coughlan, Dennis is still incensed by the severity of the FIA’s punishment.
”It’s so disproportionate to the reality,” he said. “But I now have to decide
whether McLaren should take a financial hit in the interests of the sport.”
McLaren have until Thursday to lodge an appeal with the national federation,
which would be heard by an international court of appeal. The danger for
McLaren is that, should they lose, an independent court might widen the
penalty to their drivers and end the title hopes of Lewis Hamilton, who
leads the championship by three points, and his main rival, Alonso.
Ecclestone has revealed that the team was a few seconds away from being
excluded from the constructors’ championship next year as well. Mosley
issued a further warning to McLaren yesterday. “We could have said to them:
‘You have polluted the world championship’,” he said. “We could have
excluded them for two years. It’s absurd to say the punishment is
disproportionate. If anything, it is a very modest penalty.” Mosley says the
FIA will monitor Alonso’s position at McLaren carefully to check that he
gets equal treatment in light of his role in the affair – an almost
insulting precaution against a team that prides itself on equality of
opportunity.
By the end of the afternoon Mosley and Dennis had posed for the cameras in
front of the McLaren motorhome, but it will take more than a stage-managed
handshake to establish peace. McLaren feel a deep sense of injustice at the
way they have been treated.
Alonso’s increasingly tenuous position in the team has coincided with his best
form of the season. His morale was at its lowest in the wake of his
deliberate blocking manoeuvre on Hamilton during final qualifying in
Hungary. He was demoted five places on the grid and Hamilton drove serenely
to victory. On the morning of the race, according to Dennis, Alonso went to
his office “pretty upset” and threatened to reveal the contents of an email
conversation with Coughlan to the FIA if he was not given preferential
treatment.
Half an hour later, Dennis said, Alonso’s agent, Luis Garcia, retracted
everything and apologised on behalf of his driver. “He [Alonso] came to my
office after the race and apologised himself,” Dennis added yesterday. “He
just said: ‘Let’s go motor racing now’.”
The extent of the involvement of key members of the McLaren team was revealed
at the hearing in Paris, with the flow of email and text traffic between
Coughlan and Nigel Stepney, the Ferrari chief mechanic, increasing during
testing and at the early races of the season. Information about the weight
distribution of the Ferrari was requested by De la Rosa and provided by
Coughlan. Other areas of exchange concerned flexible wings, aerodynamics,
tyres and pit strategy. McLaren’s contention is that none of the information
was used on their current championship-leading car, an argument not accepted
by the 26 members of the WMSC, which includes Ecclestone.
Until the spying affair, the main accusation against Alonso revolved around
his mental fragility. Unsettled by Hamilton’s pace and coolness, he became
increasingly ragged in his attempts to establish supremacy in a team he
believes he should lead. But it is Hamilton now who is feeling the pressure
as his 10-point lead has been whittled away, first by a tyre explosion in
Turkey, then by his Spanish teammate’s aggression and flawless drive at
Monza.
Having spun on his penultimate qualifying lap on the sweeping contours of the
Spa-Francorchamps circuit yesterday, Alonso left little room for error as
the seconds ticked away on the decisive phase of qualifying. Lying in 10th
position, he produced a lap of skill and nerve to post a time of 1.46.091,
third-quickest behind Raikkonen and Massa, but more than three-tenths of a
second ahead of Hamilton, who had lost time behind a BMW-Sauber in the
mid-section of his flying lap.
“I’m not concerned [about the speculation],” Alonso said later. “I am feeling
committed and totally happy with my team. These things have been said all
year – that I will be leaving the team, that I have problems with the
team. But I’ve never said anything like that. The only thing I said was that
I had a contract with the team for the next few years. I came here to win
races and championships and now we’re in a position to do that.”
In contrast, Hamilton has been blameless in the whole saga. He travelled to
Paris in the middle of a busy week to support the team rather than to give
evidence. “I felt I ought to be there,” he said. It was indicative of the
mood, though, that Alonso decided to go to Spa on Thursday instead of Paris.
“The only email I’ve sent to Pedro [de la Rosa] was about a female,”
Hamilton said. “I don’t know Fernando’s email address. We talk when we get
to the track.”
The strain of a gruelling first season in F1 is beginning to tell on Hamilton.
The first signs of war weariness emerged in the wake of his pursuit of
Alonso at Monza, when he talked about the debilitating nature of pit-lane
politics. While Alonso seems to have thrived on the turbulence of the past
two months, the Englishman has lacked the sharpness of his early form. Ona
track similar to Istanbul Park, the McLaren drivers might have to settle
their internal squabbles in the slipstream of the Ferraris. “They look very
quick and very strong here,” said Alonso. Hamilton’s three-point lead at the
head of the championship is beginning to look very slender.
The new evidence that got McLaren into deeper hot water
Pedro De la Rosa, inset, and Fernando Alonso admit to WMSC that they sent
and received a series of damning emails; Lewis Hamilton denies receiving any
information, by email or any other means
Mar 21 McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa emails McLaren designer
Mike Coughlan asking for details of Ferrari’s weight distribution. Coughlan
supplies this information via text
Mar 25 De la Rosa sends an email to Alonso setting out Ferrari’s weight
distribution to two decimal places. He also informs the world champion that
all the Ferrari information is reliable and that it comes from Ferrari’s
head of development, Nigel Stepney, who has also provided information about
the Italian team’s fl exible rear wing
- De la Rosa reveals that Stepney informed McLaren that Ferrari driver Kimi
Raikkonen would make a fuel stop on the 18th lap of the Australian GP
(Raikkonen actually made his stop on the 19th lap). It also emerges Stepney
told Coughlan when Ferrari would make their pit-stops in the Bahrain Grand
Prix
- De la Rosa goes on to tell Alonso that Ferrari use a special gas to inflate
their tyres. It reduces internal temperatures and blistering
- Alonso comes back to his teammate, telling him it is ‘very important’ that
McLaren test the gas. De la Rosa told the WMSC that he consulted a
Bridgestone engineer who believed it was highly unlikely that any tyre gas
would give McLaren an advantage.
The WMSC doubted the validity of these claims, suggesting it was unlikely a
test driver would engage in consultation of this nature without consulting
senior team members
Apr 12 De la Rosa asked Coughlan to provide as much information as he
could about Ferrari’s braking system. Two days later, Coughlan provided a
technical description which Ferrari subsequently confi rmed to be
accurate
- Italian police have told the FIA that they have traced at least 288 text
messages, 35 phone calls and 23 emails between Stepney and Coughlan from
March 1 to July 3
- McLaren accept that there was an exchange of information between Stepney and
Coughlan, but deny that it was used to improve the performance of McLaren’s
2007 F1 car
- The team initially told the WMSC that Coughlan had a relatively limited
managerial role within the team but it later emerged that he played an
active role in designing the McLaren car. The WMSC found it diffi cult
to accept that Coughlan’s knowledge of the Ferrari would not have infl
uenced his decisions at McLaren n The WMSC was also unhappy about McLaren’s
failure to take action when Coughlan came into possession of some
unauthorised photographs. This happened after McLaren had supposedly ordered
Coughlan to have no further contact with Stepney
- McLaren told the WMSC on Thursday that the dossier of information found in
Coughlan’s possession was of no use or interest to the team, but the WMSC
refused to accept this, saying that the dossier was highly signifi
cant and would provide an advantage
- The WMSC concluded that McLaren had breached the rules. As a result, the
team was stripped of its constructors’ points and was fi ned
£50m less any prize-money due to the team on account of results in the 2007
constructors’ championship
- Although Alonso and Hamilton have escaped punishment, the WMSC’s ruling
stated that Alonso had received secret information from De la Rosa
