suspended mclaren employee is mike coughlan

The FIA got involved because mclaren asked them to. They wanted to prove that they never used the plans, which they did.

This is going on now beacuse ferrari are saying mclaren did use them.

Ron replies!


McLaren hit out at Ferrari

By Biranit Goren Wednesday, August 1st 2007, 18:22 GMT


McLaren have publicly accused Ferrari of winning the Australian Grand Prix earlier this year with an illegal car and claim the Italian team are now deliberately providing the media with misleading information aimed at tarnishing McLaren's reputation.

For the first time since the spying scandal began last month, McLaren have disclosed in public their detailed version of the events in the affair that is currently being contested between the Woking-based outfit and their rivals Ferrari.

In a lengthy letter made public by McLaren and addressed to the president of the Italian motorsport authority ACI-CSAI Luigi Macaluso, McLaren CEO Ron Dennis heavily criticises Ferrari for spreading what he says is misleading information that is aimed at damaging McLaren's reputation.

"McLaren's reputation has been unfairly sullied by incorrect press reports from Italy and grossly misleading statements from Ferrari," Dennis writes.

"This is a fantastic World Championship and it would be a tragedy if one of the best World Championships in years was derailed by the acts of one Ferrari and one McLaren employee acting for their own purposes wholly unconnected with Ferrari or McLaren."

Dennis defends his team's behaviour in saying McLaren's only knowledge of information leaked by ex-Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney was regarding the floor device on the Ferrari car at the Australian Grand Prix.

Dennis defines Stepney's actions as 'whistle-blowing' and says such behaviour should be encouraged in Formula One, not stopped, and accuses Ferrari of winning the Australian Grand Prix with an illegal car.

"Were it not for Mr Stepney drawing this illegal device to the attention of McLaren ... there is every reason to suppose that Ferrari would have continued to race with an illegal car," Dennis writes.

"It is in the interests of F1 that whistle-blowing is encouraged and not discouraged. If team members think that their identity will be revealed they will not whistle-blow."

But Dennis is equally adamant that his team has no knowledge of the 780-page dossier that Stepney had given Coughlan at the end of April this year, and the McLaren CEO says Coughlan had acted against the explicit instructions of his supervisors and without involving or benefiting the McLaren team.

"Let me make it clear," Dennis writes, "McLaren did know about the whistle blowing matters in March 2007 - indeed it reported these matters to the FIA.

"However that has nothing to do with what Mr Coughlan did on and after 28 April 2007. McLaren management and staff had no knowledge whatsoever about that."

Source - Autosport

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2007 12:53PM by Imran.

There is a lot more than that on the mclaren site.

Looks like mclaren do not want their drivers talking to the press now.

"World champion Fernando Alonso has skipped Thursday's FIA press conference ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver was scheduled to appear alongside another four drivers, but for reasons yet unknown the British squad asked Alonso to be excused from the press conference.

The team also cancelled the usual media session with British driver Lewis Hamilton."

Does anyone have any ideas when the appeal hearing is likely to take place ?

Probably because they know it will be loaded with questions about this situation rather than the race itself, so there is no point distracting the drivers.

Yes kimi got asked questions but does not look like he read the letter Ron wrote lol.

The reason why ferrari were not banned from the 1st gp was mclaren did not question the results, even though there was a chance the ferrari was illegal.

We dont know if it was illegal as the tests were changed after that race.

I agree 100% with ron dennis letter to charlie whiting and jean todt. ferrari are the cheats, now because they have an endless budget, they are hiring the best lawyers etc just to fabricate this case against mclaren, and try to get them suspended. and even if mclaren dont lose championship points, ferrari are hoping to get the fans against mclaren, which unfortunantly will backfire for them. the fans know what is up, its just another exaple of ferraris win at all cost mentallity, with no morals or ethics. just like they did to michelin in 2003, which won them the championship, they are doing it all over again.
and its charlie whiting again.... its pretty obvious to anyone following f1 over the years, that he supports ferrari the most, and wants them to win. the biggest crooks in f1 over the last 10 years are jean toddt, ross brawn, michael schumacher and charlie whiting.

As i said before i fully understand why ferrari are not happy and i agree with them i just think they should take it up with Stepney and Mike and not carry on like this.

For me Ron's letter explains what happened in the time scales and in the meeting.

Max letter was near anough the same and both them letters should not have been published without mclaren knowing.

This is all going to end up in court again and this time it will be mclaren vs ferrari for slander.

This is all making it very hard to be excited about the top 2 teams this weekend.
Keep the articles coming people, it's good reading.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/2007 08:21AM by Razorsedge.

The italian motor sport rep has now responded. I think Ron's letter shut him up a bit lol.

McLaren Team Principal and CEO Ron Dennis yesterday wrote a lengthy letter to Italian motorsport boss Luigi Macaluso. The President of ACI-CSAI this evening responded. A transcript of his letter is reproduced below.

Mr Ron Dennis...
[Address]

2 August 2007

Dear Mr Dennis,

Article 151c of the International Sporting Code

I refer to your letter of 1 August 2007.

It is apparent from your letter that there is a distinct difference between McLaren’s view of events and that of Ferrari. It therefore seems appropriate for the matter to be reviewed by the International Court of Appeal as decided by the FIA President, Mr. Mosley.

It is not my role nor would it be appropriate for me to answer your various points. It will be for the Court of Appeal to do so.

In any event, I would limit myself to stress that McLaren was found in breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code, but nevertheless escaped any penalty. As Mr Mosley indicated in his letter of 31 July 2007, it is important for the World Championship that the correct outcome is reached.
It is clearly in the interest of the sport that the appropriate precedent for dealing with events such as these is set.

At the hearing of the World Motor Sport Council on 26 July 2007, Ferrari was legally represented but attended the meeting merely as an observer. It accordingly did not have sufficient opportunity to present to the Council or ask questions of key individuals involved in this matter in order to test their evidence. A hearing before the International Court of Appeal will allow Ferrari an opportunity to present its evidence and arguments in detail.

Yours sincerely

Luigi Macaluso

I don't think the letter shut him up but what he does state is that it is only fair that Ferrari should be allowed to give their side of the story and question Mclaren's interpretation of events as they were just observers in the WMSC meeting.
If everything Ron said in his letter is true then Mclaren have nothing to worry about and Ferrari are going to look like sore losers.

Stepney says it was not him that told mclaren about the ferrari.

Either Stepney is lying big time or he has been set up.

I suppose it was not him that went to see Honda lol.

Tbh now I have had enough of it. There are just letters going backwards and forwards.

I think its time the FIA put a stop to it all and tell everyone to stop sending letters and wait for the meeting.

The Italian motor sport guy said he is not saying any thing more as he does not want a tennis match, but the way I look at it is it is fine for ferrari and him to say things in letters but as soon and rightly so as mclaren reply he gets funny.

Ferrari will explain how their flexi floor worked in Australia, if it was not illegal why did they change it for the next race? the only reason the flexi floor thing has come up is beacuse ferrari claimed mclaren used the 700 page doc for it when Ron said they used a tip off and mike did not even have the document then. The whole world knew about the floor at the time anyway as it was all over the web.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/2007 04:42PM by marcl.

Sorry folks , just one more comment, I've been on the red wine...

Ferrari's Floor was not illegal until AFTER the Melbourne event when the F.I.A. clarified the rule pertaining to this area of the car. I wanted to state this earlier but had to bite my tongue because folks here are very sensitive about 'proof' and 'facts' and 'interpretation' well; it was interpretation of the regulations that allowed Ferrari to race the Melbourne spec car. And it is McLarens 'Possession' of the Ferrari Data that might result in a 1 race ban.

The whole affair has become very muddled. Ferrari must be extremely confident of their case.

It's a horrible cliche, but this is like watching a train wreck.

If the Ferrari apeal does not work they are going to look very stupid really.

This whole thing could have been dealt with alot better than it has.

As for the ferrari floor. It was designed in a way to pass the FIA tests. The tests were rubbish really as it did not test how much force would be applied if the car was running at a high speed, the test does that now.

Ferrari were meant to have designed the floor to pass the test, but also do what was illegal when in the track, just like the flexi wing stuff last year with teams.

There is not much the FIA can do about that now tbh and as I said this whole matter about the floor has only been raised due to ferrari saying mclaren used the 700 plans for this when infact they say they did not.

Mike has already said he never used the plans when at mclaren, I bet half the people do not even know what he was working on. All he done at mclaren since his failed car was sign off drawing before the part are made. He had no input on the current car.

And as I said before Nigel is either lying or he has a double lol.

It's true; this will be a very bad appeal for Ferrari to lose.

Yeah Nigel is either lying through his teeth or he has been set up big time. At this moment i think it's the former but we'll see.

I disagree that Ferrari are feeling that confident with their case as they haven't handled this very well imo. They have said too much to the press for my liking and by bringing more bad politics and mud slinging in the public domain this has already tainted a potentially great championship.
If they are so confident, given their status in motorsports they should just get about giving their evidence through the right channels and wait for the appropriate verdict through the court of appeal in the future.

The thing is if the info was sent by email anyone in Ferrari could have sent that to mclaren using Nigels email.

But Mike and Nigel were meant to have met so I dont see how Nigel can deny this unless mike is lying that he met Nigel.

What mclaren and ferrari are saying is totally different. And as I have said a number of times what was said by Ron in the meeting about how they found out about the floor has been backed up by Max in his letter. So that mean Todat had not been telling the whole truth.

The truth will come out though but both Nigel and Mike need to be asked questions.

no offence, but do you have a job, Marcl? i don't so sit here most of the day, but you're posting more than me!

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

yes i have a job lol.

Its just so quiet there at the mo.