Ferrari claims McLaren used their secrets
The document, lodged with the high court in London last Friday relating to an ongoing case taken out by Ferrari against McLaren's chief designer, Mike Coughlan, sets out in greater detail than ever before their accusations in the sabotage scandal that has divided formula one. McLaren, who go before the governing body, the FIA, today to answer charges of benefiting from 780 pages of information about the design of the Ferrari which were allegedly passed from the former chief mechanic Nigel Stepney to Coughlan, have repeatedly and vigorously denied any wrongdoing. A spokeswoman for the team declined to make any comment.
McLaren have insisted from the outset that the only member of their technical organization to have received Ferrari's confidential information was Coughlan, who was suspended this month. In its most recent statement, on July 16, McLaren repeated that "no Ferrari material or data are, or have ever been, in the possession of any McLaren employee other than the individual sued by Ferrari".
This is contested in the document, which lists five occasions on which, Ferrari claim, their secrets were made known to McLaren executives including Martin Whitmarsh, the team's chief operations officer, and Paddy Lowe, the engineering director.
Contrary to reports this month, the Italian team have not dropped their high court action against Coughlan and his wife Trudy. Outlining their case against the couple before last Sunday's grand prix, Ferrari's lawyers noted that, at that time, they were only 25 points behind McLaren in the constructors' championship. "The difference between the two teams is so close that it is likely that McLaren's superior number of points is a consequence of its chief designer having the Ferrari documents," the team's lawyers say. More at The Guardian