Formula One: Formula One leaders McLaren have accused rivals Ferrari of running an illegal car at the start of the season and making 'grossly misleading' statements in a spy controversy overshadowing the championship.
In a long and detailed letter to the head of the Italian
Automobile Club (ACI) published on the McLaren website (
www.mclaren.com), team boss
Ron Dennis took issue with Ferrari's allegations.
The governing FIA ruled last week that McLaren, 27 points
clear of Ferrari in the standings before Sunday's Hungarian Grand
Prix, had been in unauthorised possession of Ferrari data but
imposed no penalty because there was inconclusive evidence they had
gained from it.
The matter will now go to appeal after protests from Ferrari
and the Italian body.
Dennis referred to two incidents involving McLaren and
Ferrari data, one of which he said was a clear case of
whistleblowing.
He said Ferrari employee Nigel Stepney, since dismissed by
the team, had tipped off McLaren's chief designer Mike Coughlan in
March that the Italian team's car was in breach of the regulations.
"Specifically, he told Mr Coughlan about a floor attachment
mechanism and a rear wing separator, both of which could be and
were seen on the Ferrari car prior to the Australian Grand Prix,"
said Dennis.
He said the governing body declared the rear wing separator to
be legal but not the floor device.
"As far as we are aware, Ferrari ran their cars with this
illegal device at the Australian Grand Prix, which they won," said
Dennis.
"In the interests of the sport, McLaren chose not to protest
the result of the Australian Grand Prix even though it seems clear
that Ferrari had an illegal competitive advantage."
Dennis said Stepney had "acted properly and in the interests
of the sport" in bringing the matter out into the open.
"It is in the interests of Formula One that whistle-blowing
is encouraged and not discouraged," he said.
Dennis said McLaren had instructed Coughlan to cease contact
with Stepney but they met in Barcelona on April 28th.
In July, two computer discs with Ferrari material were found
in a search of Coughlan's house carried out on the orders of the
Italian team.
"As it is now in the public domain, Mr Coughlan has admitted
that Mr Stepney gave him a dossier of Ferrari documents in
Barcelona which he took for his own private reasons," wrote Dennis.
"He kept these documents at his home and later with the
assistance of his wife copied (them) onto two CDs at a shop near
their home before shredding the originals using a home shredder and
burning them in his back garden."
Dennis said Ferrari had gone to "extraordinary length to try
to maximise the damage to McLaren, no doubt hoping to gain some
advantage for the world championship" since that discovery.
He again ruled out anyone else at McLaren being aware of the
documents or of any Ferrari details finding their way into the
design process.
"McLaren's reputation has been unfairly sullied by incorrect
press reports from Italy and grossly misleading statements from
Ferrari," said Dennis.
"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."