[DOF_power]

F1 spy rows set to reach climax


Renault are facing a fine or
a ban if found guilty of spying



Formula One's spying scandal will come under the spotlight again on Thursday when the sport's governing body meets to discuss two separate cases.

Renault will appear before the FIA on Thursday to answer a charge of unauthorised possession of confidential McLaren technical data.

The French team deny the information was used in their 2007 car.

McLaren, who have been found guilty on a similar charge, face further scrutiny on Friday on the Ferrari controversy.

McLaren were fined £47.5m and thrown out of the constructors' championship after being involved in an earlier spying controversy involving Ferrari data.

However, after punishing the team in September, the FIA said it would investigate further to ensure that no Ferrari data appeared in next year's car.

The FIA is expected to reach a verdict on Renault's case on Thursday but a decision on McLaren's fate is unlikely to be made until Friday or even next week.

And on the eve of the hearing, McLaren were dealt a blow in their case against Renault when they were forced by the FIA to clarify allegations made about Renault in a document prepared by their lawyers and leaked to British media, including the BBC.

McLaren submitted a dossier to the FIA which alleged that the files were discussed by up to 18 Renault F1 personnel, including a group of senior engineering chiefs and heads of department.

But they were forced to admit on Wednesday that in fact "13 Renault F1 employees had provided 18 witness statements and nine of them have so far admitted they viewed and discussed the confidential technical information belonging to McLaren".

McLaren also said it was "wrong to say that the information was loaded on to 11 Renault computers. In fact, it was copied on to 11 computer discs by former McLaren employee Phil Mackereth.

"A back-up copy of the material on Mr Mackereth's personal directory was made on to an unknown number of Renault's back-up servers/tapes" .

Only two Renault employees, one of them Mackereth, admitted to viewing the McLaren information on a computer screen. The others said they saw it on print-outs or hard-copy documents.

McLaren had also claimed the information taken to Renault by now-suspended Mackereth included 780 individual drawings on computer discs.

"This was an error," the McLaren statement said. " The information [was] taken... on floppy discs, in hard-copy form and by e-mail amounts to 762 pages when printed out. The 11 computer discs included 18 individual technical drawings."

McLaren also stepped back from the earlier document's claim that the information amounted to "the entire technical blueprint of the 2006 and 2007 McLaren car".

"This requires clarification," the McLaren statement said.

"The position is that the McLaren drawings plus the information in a confidential... document taken by Mr Mackereth constitute a technical definition of the fundamental layout of the 2007 McLaren car and the technical details of its innovative and performance-enhancing systems."

Renault deny any of the data was used in their 2007 car and claim every effort was made to erase the information from their systems.

They have admitted the information was brought to the team by the now suspended Mackereth, who loaded it onto their F1 file system "without the knowledge of anyone in authority in the team".

"None of this information was used to influence design decisions," said Renault in a statement. "We have acted with complete transparency towards McLaren and the FIA, been proactive in solving this matter and we are fully confident in the judgement of the world council."

The verdict in the Renault case will be watched with interest by double world champion Fernando Alonso.

The Spaniard's former team are one of his few options for a drive next season following his acrimonious split with McLaren, but a severe penalty could well put him off re-joining the outfit with which he won his titles.

Once the Renault matter is dealt with, the world council will turn its attention to McLaren's 2008 car and whether it contains any Ferrari information.

A team of independent legal and technical experts visited the McLaren headquarters in Woking last month to assess the team's design for next season's Formula One car.

The world council will view this information before deciding whether to impose any further sanctions on the team.

FIA president Max Mosley has suggested that any further sanctions could take the form of a "negative points allocation" for McLaren at the start of next season, although F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has distanced himself from such a scenario.

"What Max said after the last World Council Meeting was that if the FIA found anything on the McLaren car, they could be penalised," he said.

"But they have got to have found something in there for a start and then the World Council has got to agree it."

-----

Briatore threatens to sue McLaren
''Our reputation has been defamed''
06/12/07 09:25


Zoom
Briatore confident that Renault will not
be found in breach of the regulations

F1-Live.com

Briatore confident that Renault will not be found in breach of the regulations
Flavio Briatore has threatened to sue McLaren after the FIA's World Council investigates espionage allegations in a Monaco hearing on Thursday.

"A lot of very bad things have been said about us by McLaren in the last few weeks; very damaging," the Renault boss is quoted as saying by the Daily Express.

"We will be cleared and once the verdict is announced we will consider legal action. Our reputation has been defamed," he added.

The Italian's warning followed what other British media described as an 'embarrassing' retreat by Ron Dennis' Woking-based team, which earlier in 2007 was heavily penalised by F1's governing body for a similar spying saga.

The Daily Mail said the McLaren statement issued to the press on Wednesday amount to an admission of having 'falsified information' in what had originally been an anonymous leak to the press.

"The FIA has asked us to correct certain factual errors contained in a press briefing given on our behalf by one journalist concerning Renault F1 and we are pleased to do so," the team said.

The statement described how McLaren's case against Renault had been exaggerated, such as the fact that nine - not 18 - Renault employees have admitting to viewing and discussing the stolen McLaren information.

Source GMM
© CAPSIS International

[DOF_power]

DECEMBER 6, 2007

FIA imposes no penalty on Renault

FIA World Motor Sport Council
© FIA

The meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council has ended today in Monaco, and the FIA has issued a release stating that Renault F1 was found to be in breach of article 151c of the International Sporting Code, but will not be imposing any penalty on the team.
The FIA says it will later release details of the ruling.
Renault F1 Team Managing Director Flavio Briatore said, "I would like to thank Renault, our title sponsor ING and all our partners for their wholehearted support during this sensitive period. I also wish to pay tribute to the team, which has handled the matter with integrity and dignity. We are pleased that we can now focus fully on our preparations for the 2008 championship."
More to follow shortly.

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by DOF_power

DECEMBER 6, 2007

FIA imposes no penalty on Renault

FIA World Motor Sport Council
© FIA

The meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council has ended today in Monaco, and the FIA has issued a release stating that Renault F1 was found to be in breach of article 151c of the International Sporting Code, but will not be imposing any penalty on the team.
The FIA says it will later release details of the ruling.
Renault F1 Team Managing Director Flavio Briatore said, "I would like to thank Renault, our title sponsor ING and all our partners for their wholehearted support during this sensitive period. I also wish to pay tribute to the team, which has handled the matter with integrity and dignity. We are pleased that we can now focus fully on our preparations for the 2008 championship."
More to follow shortly.

What does article 151c of the International Sporting Code address? It's not clear from the above articles...

[DOF_power]

"Any fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally."


It's probably the most vague of all articles.

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by DOF_power

"Any fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally."


It's probably the most vague of all articles.

sounds just like the one NASCAR is always quoting when they assess penalties and fines....

[DOF_power]

Hence the "international" part.



BTW

The full WMSC decision on Renault


Friday, December 7th 2007, 11:57 GMT
The World Motor Sport Council ("WMSC") met on 6 December 2007 to consider a charge that Renault F1 Team ("Renault") had breached Article 151(c) of the International Sporting Code, which prohibits "any fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally".
...
.
.
11. Decision
11.1. For the foregoing reasons, the WMSC:
11.1.1. finds Renault in breach of Article 151(c) of the International Sporting Code,
11.1.2. imposes no penalty due to the lack of evidence that the Championship has been affected.

Signed:
Max Mosley
FIA President
Monaco, 6 December 2007

[Racer Duck]

I guess since they barely made the podium in the team Championships (and would not have had McLaren not been DQ'd) there's really not a good case they benefited from the infromation...

If NASCAR would follow that lead when assessing penalties, there'd be a lot more fans less disgruntled with them...

[DOF_power]

Max Mosley aparently rebuked suggestions that the FIA is guilty of double standards in continuing to pursue McLaren but letting Renault off the hook for a similar case of spying.

"McLaren was punished because they did not tell the truth on 26 July. It was stated that the information had flowed exclusively to Mike Coughlan.

"Renault admitted from the outset that the information was discussed among a wider circle of engineers," Mosley explained.

"I do not have a problem with Ron (Dennis)," he continued. "I just want to hear the truth if we have to solve an internal problem.

"During the World Council meeting on 26 July I have the impression that he did not tell us the truth."

Formula 1 complete - all in F1

------------------------------

To clear up some facts:
The FIA ordered McLaren to issue a statement on Wednesday correcting the raft of factual errors in Bishop's briefing, including the fact that only 9 - not 18 - Renault employees viewed the British team's secrets.

A World Motor Sport Council statement on Friday also observed that McLaren created the impression in the briefing that Renault possessed "very large numbers" of McLaren design drawings.

The statement said: "McLaren has acknowledged to the WMSC that it circulated an erroneous press briefing which had created this impression, and has apologised and issued a correction. As far as the present proceedings are concerned, that concludes the matter."

F1Complete.com: FIA to sue newspaper for libel (Powered by TotalF1.com)


Hmnnn I wonder ...

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by DOF_power

Max Mosley aparently rebuked suggestions that the FIA is guilty of double standards in continuing to pursue McLaren but letting Renault off the hook for a similar case of spying.

"McLaren was punished because they did not tell the truth on 26 July. It was stated that the information had flowed exclusively to Mike Coughlan.

"Renault admitted from the outset that the information was discussed among a wider circle of engineers," Mosley explained.

"I do not have a problem with Ron (Dennis)," he continued. "I just want to hear the truth if we have to solve an internal problem.

"During the World Council meeting on 26 July I have the impression that he did not tell us the truth."

:

You should be thankful the hearings weren't held over here, DOF. Since Feb 12, 1999 our governing Senate body has made lying under oath an acceptable tactic when questioned.

[DOF_power]

And just when I thought things couldn't have possibly been more messed up, you just proved me wrong.
Well thanks Bob.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by DOF_power

And just when I thought things couldn't have possibly been more messed up, you just proved me wrong.
Well thanks Bob.

You recognize the significance of that date, right?