Mclaren and spygate

[Dylan]

Emails:

The e-mails show unequivocally that both Mr. Alonso and Mr. de la Rosa received confidential Ferrari information via Coughlan; that both drivers knew that this information was confidential Ferrari information and that both knew that the information was being received by Coughlan from Stepney.

weight distribution

3.5 On 21 March 2007 at 09.57 Mr. de la Rosa wrote to Coughlan in the following terms:

"Hi Mike, do you know the Red Car's Weight Distribution? It would be important for us to know so that we could try it in the simulator. Thanks in advance, Pedro.
p.s. I will be in the simulator tomorrow."

3.6 In his evidence given to the WMSC, Mr. de la Rosa confirmed that Coughlan replied by text message with precise details of Ferrari's weight distribution.

3.7 On 25 March 2007 at 01.43 Mr. de la Rosa sent an e-mail to Fernando Alonso which sets out Ferrari's weight distribution to two decimal places on each of Ferrari's two cars as set up for the Australian Grand Prix.

3.8 Mr. Alonso replied to this e-mail on 25 March 2007 at 12.31 (they were in different time zones). His e-mail includes a section headed "Ferrari" in which he says "its weight distribution surprises me; I don't know either if it's 100% reliable, but at least it draws attention". The e-mail continues with a discussion of how McLaren's weight distribution compares with Ferrari's.

3.9 Mr. de la Rosa replied on 25 March 2007 13.02 stating the following: "All the information from Ferrari is very reliable. It comes from Nigel Stepney, their former chief mechanic - I don't know what post he holds now. He's the same person who told us in Australia that Kimi was stopping in lap 18. He's very friendly with Mike Coughlan, our Chief Designer, and he told him that."

3.10 Mr. de la Rosa's e-mail to Coughlan specifically stated that he wished to receive Ferrari's weight distribution for the purposes of testing it in the simulator the following day ("It would be important for us to know so that we could try it in the simulator"). Mr. de la Rosa explained to the WMSC at the meeting of 13 September 2007 that when Coughlan responded with the precise details in question, he (de la Rosa) decided that the weight distribution was so different to the McLaren car set up that it would not, in fact, be tested in the simulator. Mr de la Rosa says that thereafter he regarded the information as unimportant. It seems highly unlikely to the WMSC that a test driver would take a decision of this sort on his own. It also is not clear why, if Mr. de la Rosa regarded this information as unimportant, he would still convey and discuss it with Mr. Alonso some days later in his e-mail exchange of 25th March. Mr. de la Rosa's evidence also makes clear that there was no reluctance or hesitation about testing the Ferrari information for potential benefit, but only that on this occasion he says that there was a technical reason not to do so.

3.11 McLaren's Chief Engineer Mr. Lowe gave clear evidence that decisions relating to simulator testing would normally involve a number of engineering and other staff (as would running the tests themselves). It seems highly unlikely that decisions about what would be run in the simulator would by taken by a test driver on his own.

 

[teppic]

naughty boys!

a 100 million fine still seems ludicrously harsh.

 

[Cal]

My mate is more or less crying about it, i just laugh at him

 

[Dylan]

naughty boys!

a 100 million fine still seems ludicrously harsh.

That is going right into the pockets of the WMSC aka Ferrari/Mosley

 

[Philw]

Ive only read a little about this but my understanding is that theres no proof that any of the information has been used? Ron Dennis is in my experience a pretty straight stand up guy, and i dont imagine he would take this stance if they had used it. Anyway, i hope that they havent, as Mclaren have always been my fav team, since the Lauda/Prost/Senna days, i'd hate to see their name tarnished this way.

Edit: Oh wow, there's two pages to this thread!!! D'oh!

 

[SuitsBlue]

i suspect an appeal. that'll halve the fine.

and lets see if alonso defends the title and who finishes second.

 

[monty]

No one is reading the news I see, the money will go to buy QPR, FACT

 

[Rob]

well, if they used or not is irrelevent, they had it and were using it to test their own car as we can see.

They cheated and the drivers especially alonso who knew about it are lucky too, the money fine is stupid makes no difference.

I wondered since day one how Mclaren had gone from a fast car that can't stay on the track to one that has a near 100% perfect record.

 

[Dylan]

Rob, stop going on about that. IT has no bearing on this, McLarens reliability has not been in question here. Nothing in that lengthy article suggests anything of the kind.

This is nothing out of the norm, the F1 teams are spying on each other 24/7 It wasn't so long ago Ferrari was accusing Toyota of stealing their data. The difference here is McLaren got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

Personally I think Ferrari are the dirtiest, low-down underhanded cheating team in the WORLD. NASCAR, IRL, WTC, BTCC, DTM, WRC, Champ Car, MotoGP all included. When something doesn't go their way they spit the dummy out and bitch and complain about anything. Then when they don't get their way, they resort to other underhanded methods to try and reign supreme.

I have been a McLaren fan since I was a kid who watched Prost and Senna win 15 out of 16 races between them in the Red and White of McLaren. Always wanted them to do well, but recently I have been following Honda much more (who are having a gash season, FACT!) and when Prodrive enter their team, I will follow them religiously (Dave Richards rules ). The point of all that, I am not a McLaren fanboy, I just dislike Ferrari intensely.