McLaren appear guilty as sin

[Editor's Note: If these allegations by Ferrari are true, the McLaren team had to benefit from the information from Ferrari and would explain why all of a sudden this year they are on pace with Ferrari. In conclusion, at this early stage they appear to be guilty as sin and all the points earned to date in 2007 should be stripped from both the team and the drivers.]

The documents that Ferrari's chief mechanic, Nigel Stepney, is alleged to have passed to Mike Coughlan of McLaren in formula one's ongoing sabotage scandal contained details of four aspects of the Italian car's design, it emerged yesterday.

Ferrari's lawyers claim that, in March, Stepney sent three emails to his friend Coughlan about an unspecified "floor device", a rear wing-flap separator (for enhancing aerodynamic down force) and a "subtle engineering technique to lower the floor of the Ferrari car." A document obtained by the Guardian and the Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, also claims that, at a meeting between the two men in Barcelona at the end of April, Stepney gave Coughlan "a diagram of a brake balance assembly used by Ferrari and discussed how the rear brake disc on the Ferrari Formula One car worked".

Stepney, who is formally a suspect in a judicial investigation in Italy, has hotly denied the accusations leveled at him by his employers. Earlier this month, he was quoted as saying his encounter with Coughlan in Spain was "just a catch-up between old friends". The relationship between the two men is at the centre of a nine-page submission drawn up by Ferrari's lawyers and deposited at the high court in London on July 20. It represents an early stage in proceedings brought by the Italian team against Coughlan and his wife, who have yet to present their side.

Ferrari's lawyers trace the origins of the row to the three alleged emails, which they say were received by Coughlan at his McLaren email address. They claim he then showed the email relating to the floor device to Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren's chief operations officer, "who asked him to take up the issue with Paddy Lowe", the team's engineering director.

Coughlan, Ferrari alleges, "produced a schematic drawing for Mr. Lowe, which was then forwarded to the FIA", which later banned Ferrari's flexible floor. More at The Guardian