Sep 10, 2007

More Foreign Intrigue in F1 Spy Scandal

If I'm ever convicted of a crime, please let me be sentenced by the FIA, the organization that sanctions and provides oversight for Formula One racing. Why do I say this? In July, McLaren, one of the sport's top teams, was found to be in breach of the International Sporting Code for possessing confidential data about Ferrari, another of the sport's top teams, but no penalty was meted out. The FIA's rationale for this lily-livered behavior was that: "the Council could find insufficient evidence that the information had been used." So, if somebody steals you car but doesn't drive it or doesn't drive it much, you should just shrug it off, right?

Now, the news comes that this week, another ballet slipper will drop in this ongoing bit of embarrassment. The FIA's World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) is set to reconvene this Thursday for another hearing on the sordid spy affair. Ferrari now claims it has new evidence that it would like to present to persuade the ruling body that theft ought to be punished. Because the WMSC has granted a new hearing, the referral of the matter to the International Court of Appeal has been withdrawn -- at least for now.

When the FIA ruled in July that McLaren was in breach of the International Sporting Code, the WMSC warned McLaren that: "if it is found in the future that the Ferrari information has been used to the detriment of the championship, we reserve the right to invite Vodafone McLaren Mercedes back in front of the WMSC where it will face the possibility of exclusion from not only the 2007 championship, but also the 2008 championship." That is a rather dire threat, but don't put big money on it happening unless Ferrari offers compelling evidence this week that McLaren used the stolen information to form a dog-fighting ring.

What is undeniable is the fact that 800 pages worth of Ferrari documents were discovered in the house of McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan, who presumably was not using them to prop up the broken leg of his coffee table. Nobody is quite willing to say where the now-suspended Coughlan obtained said documents, but the story on the street is that they came from deposed Ferrari performance director Nigel Stepney. Stepney has proclaimed his innocence, however.

McLaren doesn't know what the "new evidence" that Ferrari will present is, but it has pledged "to cooperate fully with the FIA," and why not, since, up till now, the FIA has cooperated fully with them.