Spy hearing continues, Coughlan speaks up
There have, reportedly, been heated exchanged during the FIA hearing of the spy case against McLaren in Paris.Proceedings in the World Motor Sports Council, which is considering new evidence against the Woking team stopped for a break at lunchtime...
There have, reportedly, been heated exchanged during the FIA hearing of the spy case against McLaren in Paris.
Proceedings in the World Motor Sports Council, which is considering new evidence against the Woking team stopped for a break at lunchtime after hearing McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton and engineering director Paddy Lowe.
A long afternoon is expected.
Meanwhile, Mike Coughlan, the McLaren designer at the heart of the storm has broken silence and revealed names of McLaren officials who knew of the Ferrari secrets in his possession.
He confirmed to Autosport that he had received the information from former Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney.
"Stepney contacted me for the first time in five years on March 1st 2007.
"He subsequently telephoned me and informed me that he was very unhappy with the direction his career was taking at Ferrari and Mr Almondo's promotion above him.
"But he did not pass any technical information about Ferrari to me until mid-March 2007."
The infromation included material on a rear wing flap separator and the floor of the Ferrari car.
"Details of the floor device were sent to me by email to my McLaren work email address.I showed the email fleetingly to Martin Whitmarsh, who asked me to take up the issue with Paddy Lowe, McLaren's engineering director.
"I produced a schematic drawing for Lowe, which I understand he forwarded to the FIA. The FIA subsequently declared the floor device as falling outside the regulations.
"Details of the rear wing device were also sent by email to me. I briefly showed this email to Lowe. I understand he reported this to Charlie Whiting of the FIA at the Melbourne Grand Prix, but he was of the opinion that the design was legal.
"As for the information about the subtle engineering technique, I felt it was inconsequential and so I did not show these details to anyone."
McLaren had denied that its officials knew of the information. It also set up a firewall to block communications from Stepney but Stepney then handed documents to Coughlan at a meeting.
"My engineering curiosity got the better of me and I foolishly took the documents from him.I casually flicked through them over the course of 25 minutes or so the journey took for Stepney to drive me to the airport. I kept hold of the documents and took them home with me. I did not look further at the documents that weekend."
"I looked at the papers given to me by Stepney on only a few occasions," he stated. "Certainly the time I spent looking at them in total between receiving them and the search at my house on July 3rd was no more than one to two hours.
"I did not look at them in a discursive or methodical way, nor did I look at all of the documents.
"In the limited period of time I spent reviewing the documents, it was not possible to glean anything that would be of material use to McLaren that we did not already know from our own observation and photographs of Ferrari's car," Coughlan claimed. McLaren insist none of the information in the documents reached its cars.
Proceedings in the World Motor Sports Council, which is considering new evidence against the Woking team stopped for a break at lunchtime after hearing McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton and engineering director Paddy Lowe.
A long afternoon is expected.
Meanwhile, Mike Coughlan, the McLaren designer at the heart of the storm has broken silence and revealed names of McLaren officials who knew of the Ferrari secrets in his possession.
He confirmed to Autosport that he had received the information from former Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney.
"Stepney contacted me for the first time in five years on March 1st 2007.
"He subsequently telephoned me and informed me that he was very unhappy with the direction his career was taking at Ferrari and Mr Almondo's promotion above him.
"But he did not pass any technical information about Ferrari to me until mid-March 2007."
The infromation included material on a rear wing flap separator and the floor of the Ferrari car.
"Details of the floor device were sent to me by email to my McLaren work email address.I showed the email fleetingly to Martin Whitmarsh, who asked me to take up the issue with Paddy Lowe, McLaren's engineering director.
"I produced a schematic drawing for Lowe, which I understand he forwarded to the FIA. The FIA subsequently declared the floor device as falling outside the regulations.
"Details of the rear wing device were also sent by email to me. I briefly showed this email to Lowe. I understand he reported this to Charlie Whiting of the FIA at the Melbourne Grand Prix, but he was of the opinion that the design was legal.
"As for the information about the subtle engineering technique, I felt it was inconsequential and so I did not show these details to anyone."
McLaren had denied that its officials knew of the information. It also set up a firewall to block communications from Stepney but Stepney then handed documents to Coughlan at a meeting.
"My engineering curiosity got the better of me and I foolishly took the documents from him.I casually flicked through them over the course of 25 minutes or so the journey took for Stepney to drive me to the airport. I kept hold of the documents and took them home with me. I did not look further at the documents that weekend."
"I looked at the papers given to me by Stepney on only a few occasions," he stated. "Certainly the time I spent looking at them in total between receiving them and the search at my house on July 3rd was no more than one to two hours.
"I did not look at them in a discursive or methodical way, nor did I look at all of the documents.
"In the limited period of time I spent reviewing the documents, it was not possible to glean anything that would be of material use to McLaren that we did not already know from our own observation and photographs of Ferrari's car," Coughlan claimed. McLaren insist none of the information in the documents reached its cars.