In July McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan was suspended from McLaren after top secret Ferrari technical documents were found in his possession after raids on his house.

The information was sufficient to allow McLaren to gain a good understanding in how to design, engineer, build, check, test, develop and run a 2007 Ferrari F1 car.

It is alleged that Couglan can be linked to Ferrari’s head of performance Nigel Stepney who was fired from Ferrari.

McLaren was initially not penalised for the documents after it was stated there was insufficient evidence that the documents were used.

Apparently suspicions were again raised after it was testified that the 780 page plus document was left with a photocopying company near McLaren’s HQ in Woking who were tasked with making a copy. An employee quickly realised that Formula 1 information of this nature would never be made available to a typical copying store, and called Police to alert them of the suspicious document they were asked to copy. Unlike the first time, this time there was more support that McLaren had used or intended to use the information.

Its likely that Police then contacted Ferrari whose name was all over the document, and Ferrari then obtained a court order to search Coughlin’s house, seizing documents and computers.

Penalty

Today the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile confirmed that after a 10 hour hearing in Paris McLaren received the following penalty:

- Stripped of all 2007 Constructors Points.
- Fined US$100,000,000 (largest sports fine in history)
- No McLaren rep on the podium should McLaren achieve a podium place for the rest of 2007.

McLaren are likely very disappointed with losing constructors points as they were well on their way to their first drivers championship since 1999. Before the loss of points McLaren lead with 166 points versus the second place Ferrari with 143.

Alonso and Hamilton have been allowed to keep their drivers points, however given an independent expert has been appointed to review the McLaren car to see if it can be proven that McLaren have actually utilised the stolen knowledge. It’s quite possible that should it be reasonably proven, both Alonso and Hamilton will be stripped of all points and further penalties may come McLaren’s way. To date McLaren have maintained that while one of thier staff did appear to have access to the illegally obtained information, the information has never been used. McLaren rolled out 140 supporting staff members including their drivers to prove it.

Potentially Ferrari, a fierce rival to McLaren, may seek criminal charges to be laid, and also sue McLaren for theft of intellectual property.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 9:35 am and is filed under News, Vehicles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.