.png "os2 trasparenza (1)")
On Thursday, July 26, 2007, in Paris, the FIA speaks up about the spy story controversy that Formula 1 is currently going through. The extraordinary Council opens with the report of Charlie Whiting, technical director of the Federation. Ferrari's accusation based (also) on Mike Coughlan's affidavit and McLaren's defence will follow. Perhaps, the verdict will be given in the evening: the British are at risk. And in recent days in Italy, investigators of the Stepney case - the same ones who decrypted the Internet messages of the Perugian cell of Al-Qaeda, who helped to break up the new Red Brigades by reading Lioce's indecipherable PDA - have accumulated evidence against Nigel Stepney, Ferrari's disloyal chief mechanic. In the work entrusted to a computer engineer and coordinated by the postal police in Rome in close cooperation with colleagues in Bologna and Modena, messages from three laptops, a home computer, at least six mobile phones and three multimedia mobile phones are being emptied and reassembled. Everything was recovered in three searches between the living room and the office (Maranello) of the English technician. In a piece of hardware, in Stepney's possession, the cyber police found deleted signs. It is a second connection of Nigel Stepney with Mike Coughlan, the McLaren chief designer with whom the disloyal technician allegedly arranged the industrial theft. All this - say the investigators - will allow the Public Prosecutor of Modena to prove the charge of industrial espionage.
"The findings are strong and diversified".
The latest digital element tracked - after Stepney's email alerting Coughlan of the irregular Ferrari floor used in Melbourne at the opening of the Formula 1 season - is an e-mail that would give evidence that Stepney, from his home in Serramazzoni, was ready to pass the Ferrari papers to his friend from the enemy team. The e-mail - trashed - would then be followed by the sending of the 780 pages. However, telematic traces have remained and are building the backbone of a judicial report that Public Prosecutor Giuseppe Tibis will read in the next few days on his return from vacation. After a month and a half, the investigation, which originated from a Ferrari complaint, has already taken the road of bank investigations, for which international collaboration and rogatory letters will soon be needed. In Rome and Modena, they are working on both British subjects: Stepney and Coughlan. Both had lively lives and significant assets. The ambitious Stepney, for fourteen years in the top ten of the most famous racing team in the world, a technician who aspired to become the new Ross Brawn, has two bank accounts in Italy, Modena, and others in England and outside Europe. The bank reconstruction of a million-dollar-a-year-man - these are the earnings of the Ferrari technical director - leads, for example, to his boat docked in Barcelona, his homes and a standard of living from which new accusatory elements could emerge.
"We're investigating in all directions".
It means that Stepney's words are also under investigation (investigative and digital) by the cyber police. The technician, however, will be heard only after the purely investigative phase. After the summer. On the complaint filed by Stepney's lawyers for the stalking, it is reported that the former Ferrari chief mechanic was followed in the Modena surroundings, where he lives, but also at the seaside, on the border between Italy and France, where he had gone in recent days together with his partner and daughter. In addition, the man is deciding together with his lawyers - Sonia Bartolini and Barbara Pini - to approach the UK investigating authority. Ferrari will appear before the FIA World Council as an injured party. Besides Jean Todt, a permanent member of the board as representative of the entire Formula 1 and therefore present not only to protect the interests of the Maranello team, the technical director Mario Almondo, great enemy of Nigel Stepney, and the lawyer Massimiliano Maestretti, one of the heads of the legal team to which the Italian company has entrusted itself, will be in Paris. Many details of the meeting at the FIA Council have not been revealed, so it is not clear whether Ferrari will be called upon to intervene effectively reinforcing the accusation. But it is likely that, at least, they will have the opportunity to submit a written statement, in which it will explain the damage it has suffered as a result of the theft of the precious documents.
From London, the news of a surprise move by Ferrari right on the eve of the Paris hearing has been leaked: Maranello's team has asked Lord Stevens, former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, for advice on whether and how the red dossier found in Coughlan's home was used by McLaren. The English team has always denied that the information contained in the 780 pages seized from the home of its former chief designer was used for the development of its 2007 car, a denial that, like other inconsistencies revealed by the comparison with the affidavit submitted by Coughlan, will be verified today in Paris. In the meantime, however, Ferrari has approached Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington - who recently made headlines for an enquiry into a bribe ring in the football Premiership - to shed light on the use that has been made of the projects taken from Coughlan. The results of the investigation will not be used in the Paris trial but may be useful in the civil case before the High Court of London that Ferrari has brought against Coughlan himself. In the meantime, amid the spy story, on Wednesday, July 25, 2007, Ferrari used the McLaren control unit that manages the electronic part of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton's cars in tests at Mugello. But, this time, there is no special case: simply from 2008, that component will be used by all teams in the FIA's project to reduce F1 costs. Test driver Luca Badoer, ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, starts the first of three days of testing in the rain: 50 laps (best time 1'24"633). Vitantonio Liuzzi's Toro Rosso is also on track. Meanwhile, Kimi Räikkönen promises a battle:
"We're not out, we're not giving up; my gap to Hamilton is unchanged, even though there is one race less".
The mind is in Paris, the heart is in Maranello. The two things can coexist, not only in the words of Ferrari chairman, Luca Montezemolo, but in the dreams of all Ferrari fans. Because on Thursday, July 26, 2007, in front of the FIA World Council, McLaren is at great risk. If its guilt is ascertained, if the Federation decides to use its hard fist, the 2007 World Championship could come to an early close, awarding the Constructors' title to the Maranello team and leaving the Drivers' one to be hunting ground for Felipe Massa and Kimi Raïkkönen. Luca Montezemolo’s mind is in Paris:
"Because we want to ascertain whether there has been unfair behaviour in Formula 1".
That is to say, whether Ferrari, present in Paris as an injured party, in addition to the damage of the theft of 780 pages of valuable documents, has suffered the mockery of making the rival stronger with its own secrets. The heart of the sporting process that will kick off in Paris at 9:30 a.m. is exactly this: beyond the development of the judicial investigations, the FIA - through the 26 wise men of the World Council - wants to understand if Dennis’ team has benefited from these documents stolen from Maranello. In other words, whether they violated Article 151c of the International Sporting Code, with the unauthorised possession of confidential documents, including information - it is written in the charge - that could be used to design, plan, build, control, test, develop and make a Formula 1 Ferrari, model year 2007. Heavy charges, based on the suspicion that Mike Coughlan, the chief designer who received the dossier from Nigel Stepney, leaked these secrets within the team. McLaren's defence is well known: for weeks, Ron Dennis, the team principal, has been repeating that no one inside the team was aware of the material found at the home of Mike Coughlan, that McLaren only found out about the murky affair on Tuesday, July 3, 2007, (taking steps to immediately suspend his employee), that nothing was ever used. A heartfelt defence that will have to win over the members of the World Council, ready to listen to McLaren's justifications, after the charges have been laid, Mike Coughlan's affidavit will be read, the sworn statement that the chief designer handed over to the High Court in London and that the same Court has transferred to the FIA, and the report of Charlie Whiting, the Federation's technical director, who has been investigating the matter for a couple of weeks, will be made public. McLaren will have to prove their good faith and it will not be easy, because their words often clashed with what emerges from Mike Coughlan's affidavit. The prosecution claims that the British team had already been in possession of the documents since March, not July.
Mike Coughlan acknowledged that he has spoken to three of the team's top executives (Neale, Lowe, and Whitmarsh) about the dossier: they would have urged him to destroy everything, but the judges may not believe this version. Not to mention that none of the three reported the matter to the FIA. Then there is Nigel Stepney's tip, via e-mail, that he would have advised Mike Coughlan to take a look at Ferrari's floor. It dates back to March when McLaren, during the first Australian Grand Prix, asked the FIA for clarification on the floor regulations.
"We took this action without knowing about the e-mail".
But it is a suspicious coincidence to say the least. There is no doubt that McLaren is in danger. The penalty could be limited to a hefty fine, but could also go as far as exclusion from the World Championship or disqualification. In recent times, BAR was disqualified for two Grands Prix for having irregularly modified the tank, here the charges are heavier. Maybe the drivers will get away with it because Bernie Ecclestone would not like a World Championship already finished, but the standings of the World Constructors Championship could be revolutionised. With the World Championship title in favour of Ferrari. And a heavy financial loss for McLaren. Instead, it ends nil-nil. Or rather, given the premise, McLaren's result in Paris is a draw with an away goal. Because it is true that the FIA World Council has left a sword of Damocles over their heads, and if new evidence comes to light, they are ready to exclude them from this World Championship and the 2008 one, something that has angered Ron Dennis, but in the meantime, there is a welcome no-go, which in fact leaves the two world championship classifications unchanged: the Drivers' one, where Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso are leading, and the Constructors' one, where McLaren is ahead of Ferrari by 27 points. he British team, which feared this Paris meeting so much that it hired a very expensive college of lawyers to defend itself, manages to get away unpunished. No hard evidence, no conviction. Which is not to be confused with an acquittal, because that is not the case there.
McLaren, and here is one of the many ambiguous aspects of the decision taken by the judges, is held responsible for the violation of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code, was in possession of secret material owned by Ferrari, and this results in fraudulent and unfair behaviour, against competition and the interest of motorsport in general. In this respect, the World Council believes Ron Dennis' team, McLaren should not have had those papers, that is not how you behave. But the judges could not prove the advantage gained by the possession of these documents; they could not find evidence that could nail the British team, something that would show a real improvement in the performance of their car thanks to Ferrari's secrets, or that could at least, if not direct liability, trigger objective liability. For four hours, McLaren's lawyers made their pleas, and for four hours, they answered any questions or insinuations from the judges, always successfully defending their clients. Perhaps the FIA, and this is shown by the second part of the verdict, with the threat of future sanctions, should new developments come to light, did not believe their versions, or perhaps accepted them only in part, the fact remains that the overwhelming, decisive evidence did not emerge, and this has led Max Mosley, president of the FIA and lawyer of profession, to steer the verdict towards a stalemate. Not all the judges, at least initially, agreed. As Luigi Macaluso left the Chamber of Councilors, recently reappointed as CSAI's president and the only Italian judge in Paris, struggled to hide his disappointment:
"Transferring secret information from one team to another is a very serious matter, but there was no clear evidence that McLaren benefited from this. The process was very technical, professional. We have discussed a lot, and the debate has often been heated, but in the end, it could only be proven that secrets had been passed on, not that they had been used. There was nothing to be done, I do not believe that Formula 1 loses credibility, it could only be decided in this way".
The fact remains that Nigel Stepney handed over the material to Mike Coughlan, that the Ferrari secrets were breached, and that the damage was undeniable to all. But not serious enough to declare the end (at least for now) of McLaren. No exemplary sentence, only the will not to let down one's guard, to continue to investigate, to look for evidence that could (the FIA's warning in this case is explicit) lead to McLaren's exclusion in this World Championship and in the 2008 Championship. Which prompted Dennis' outraged reaction:
"This verdict is in line with the blame, for there to be a punishment there should be a crime and here there was no crime. But I'm not completely satisfied, the final threat is misplaced. We're not innocent today and tomorrow who knows. We always have been. And we'll always be".
Finally, no mercy for Nigel Stepney and Mike Coughlan. The FIA lawyers are already at work, they will be banned. Six hours of meeting behind strictly closed doors served to provide a decision that acquitted McLaren and infuriated Ferrari. A verdict that already in its operative part presents blatant contradictions. A perplexing verdict and that, as was assumed on the eve of the meeting, was strongly influenced by Max Mosley, the president of the FIA. In the end, there was no real vote. The 26 members of the World Council (which became 25 because Jean Todt left the room at the time of the decision) listened to the report of the FIA president, nodded, and, in this way, expressed their unanimous favourable opinion. In fact, Max Mosley, in his sermon, arrived after about half an hour of discussion, and repeated what appears in the official note explaining the verdict: he explained to the judges that he believed little in the good faith of McLaren, responsible in any case for fraudulent conduct, but that he had no elements necessary to impose an exemplary penalty on them. And in doubt, he added, better think about the interests of Formula 1, of a World Championship that must go on with a fierce battle on track. Not all the members of the Council were satisfied with this position, Luigi Macaluso, the only Italian present (Piccinini deserted), when leaving the FIA headquarters, appeared decidedly dissatisfied, but at the crucial moment, nobody felt to go against their president, who by the way is a lawyer by profession. The impression is that McLaren's salvation is due more to political reasons than to an effective defence by their lawyers, even though the (very expensive, the British newspapers reiterate) lawyers spoke for more than four hours, the first of the interminable meeting. It also emerges from the rumours that Ron Dennis, who was heard as a McLaren man, as well as executives Lowe and Neale, argued with Jean Todt in a somewhat heated dialectical confrontation in which the two managers had diametrically opposed points of view. It is still known that at some point, just before the lunch break, the confrontation between guilty and innocent judges had become rather harsh, so much so that Dennis, before going to eat, stated:
"It is a very difficult trial".
But then Max Mosley intervened, and with his words put everyone in agreement, except for the infuriated Ferrari, which is preparing an appeal with its lawyers. Luca Montezemolo reassures the Tifosi:
"It doesn't end here. We're thinking about what to do next".
At the moment there are no official meetings scheduled to consider whether or not to appeal the Paris judgement. But Ferrari is already thinking about how to protect their interests.
"I want to say to the Tifosi who are contacting Ferrari from all around the world, offended by the decision taken in Paris, that they can rest assured because this story will not end here".
Ferrari intends to go ahead not only to protect its own position but also because the Paris ruling is seen as a danger for the whole of Formula 1. Jean Todt says:
"It is pointless to say that McLaren has been found guilty if they then do not get a penalty. It is incomprehensible to accept that there has been no sanction. All this legitimises unfair behaviour in Formula 1 and sets a very serious precedent".
What is puzzling is the behavior that Max Mosley had during the hearing and at the time the decision was made. The FIA president dictated the line and imposed the final decision, which was not decided by a proper vote with a show of hands or closed envelopes. All this happened despite the contrary opinion of some members, including the Italian member Gino Macaluso. The president of CSAI (Commissione sportiva automobilistica italiana or Italian Motor Sports Commission) says:
"McLaren is guilty without ifs and buts".
The overall impression is that the economic interests of Formula 1 have played a significant role in the attitude of FIA’s management. A decision against McLaren could have upset the Circus: the appeal of the event for sponsors and media would have dropped. Thus came a Solomonic decision that does not change the balance. The Championship goes on: from the sporting point of view, nothing has happened. And now, with the unexpected judgment of Paris, Ferrari can no longer make mistakes on track. The World Championship is now in its downward phase: seven races to go room for error now reduced to zero for the drivers of the Maranello team. Lewis Hamilton (70 points), despite crashing into the barriers and the first zero in the standings at the Nurburgring after nine consecutive podiums, is leading the world championship standings, followed by his teammate, Fernando Alonso (68 points), also psychologically revived after his triumph in Germany, overtaking Felipe Massa with five laps to go. The Brazilian driver of Ferrari, 11 points behind, and the Finn, 18 points away from the Englishman, chase and declare that they do not want to give up but the situation is uphill. As in the World Constructors Championship, with the standings largely in favour of the British team (138 to 111 points): the comeback is also complicated by the reliability demonstrated so far by McLaren-Mercedes, always at the finish line in this championship. The pursuit is launched and will have the variable of the poison of the spy story and the Paris verdict. On Sunday, August 5, 2007, on the slow circuit of the Hungaroring, the first chance for Ferrari: but the Budapest circuit has similar characteristics to the Monte-Carlo circuit, and this year, in the Principality, McLaren did a 1-2, with Fernando Alonso ahead of Lewis Hamilton. In view of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Ferrari, during the three days of testing at Mugello, paid particular attention to electronics and aerodynamics. It will still need the best Kimi Raikkonen, so far discontinuous and below expectations. The Finn, always brilliant in recent years in Budapest, is optimistic:
"We have a competitive car and I've always performed well here, with one pole and one win".
And even immediately after the defeat in Germany, Jean Todt had shown confidence:
"We know the difficulties faced in Monte-Carlo, but that race represents the past, Budapest could be another story. We have intense tests at Mugello, we will try on that track to find the right countermeasures for a particular circuit like the Hungaroring".
The tests have been done, and the development drivers Luca Badoer and Felipe Massa were satisfied at the end because, they said, the traction improved and this could allow the car to be more competitive compared to Monte-Carlo.
Of course, qualifying performance remains crucial, as overtaking in the race is impossible. It was not good in the Principality, but this season, on the other tracks, Ferrari has often done better on the single lap than McLaren, with four pole positions by Felipe Massa and two by Kimi Raïkkönen. It is not therefore said that the two drivers of Maranello's team cannot repeat themselves in Hungary, a round in which, given the gap in the standings, they cannot fail at all. It is true that then the calendar, with the Grand Prix of Turkey, Italy and Belgium, speaks in favour of Ferrari, but a new McLaren 1-2 would risk closing the matter in favour of the British team. Certainly, considering that already today the gap is 27 points, it would put an end to the World Constructors' Championship. In this regard, there is a comment to be reported by Bernie Ecclestone:
"If Ferrari believes that the verdict is not fair, it is right to insist. But I don't think that any reaction could affect the World Championship".
As if to say that nothing will change behind the scenes. Music to the ears of Ron Dennis, who praises Lewis Hamilton's performance again:
"Half of all F1 drivers are useless. With Hamilton, we took a young and fresh driver. We didn't want a recycled driver, one that would come with the habits of another team".
Not only that: for the current season Ferrari has to be content with the Paris verdict, already defined by Maranello as unfair, inconsistent, dangerous. In fact, the team learns that it will not be able to appeal against the FIA verdict, which acquitted McLaren of industrial espionage and postpones a possible review of the verdict until the end of the season: in the face of new evidence from the judicial authorities, McLaren could be disqualified for the 2007 and 2008 championships. For now, however, Ferrari will not appeal: in the sporting trial, it is an injured party and not a defendant. The wrath, put in haste by the judgment of Place de la Concorde, will have to be turned into judicial proceedings by their lawyers Maestretti and Mattioli, only in the non-sporting venues. In fact, at the High Court of London, the civil trial continues against Mike Cloughan, chief designer at McLaren, and at the Prosecutor's Office of Modena, where the Public Prosecutor Tibis has returned, the case remains open for sabotage against Nigel Stepney, the former Ferrari chief mechanic accused of pouring white powder into the tanks of Kimi Raïkkönen's F2007. On Monday, July 30, 2007, the Carabinieri of the Scientific deposited the report on the powder in court. The Public Prosecutor does not want to identify it but explains that both the part that settled at the bottom of the Ferrari tank and the part that dissolved into the fuel (two different chemical compounds) were definitely and specifically harmful.
This will trigger two other criminal cases against Nigel Stepney: damage (which occurred immediately, as one tank was replaced) and sporting fraud (the sabotaged F2007 was supposed to race during the following Monaco Grand Prix). Stepney continues to profess his innocence, but there are eyewitnesses who accuse him of having poured the product. The comparison between the powder found in both the Ferrari engine and some bins of the racing department with that scraped off Nigel Stepney's trousers will be made, then, in a pre-trial hearing. And on the issue of sabotage, Ferrari has filed 200 pages of its own investigations, which add new elements of accusation against the former chief mechanic. In the public prosecutor's office, however, the second phase of the investigation does not take off: the alleged industrial espionage. The affidavit issued by Mike Coughlan to the High Court in London, even if already published on the website of the British judiciary, will only reach Public Prosecutor Tibis through a rogatory. On Tuesday, July 3, 2007, Ferrari submitted a report linking Nigel Stepney to Mike Coughlan, but the deputy prosecutor did not consider it sufficient to further expand the possibility of crime. The day after the verdict, Ferrari's anger has not subsided. On the contrary, if possible the anger is even more pronounced, even if the accusations are brought by Jean Todt with a clear head.
"For Ferrari it was like playing a poker hand with an opponent who already knew their cards. McLaren confirmed that they had to install a firewall to prevent other information from Stepney from reaching the team in a documented manner, and Coughlan was asked to tell Stepney to stop sending him data. Too bad Coughlan first asked him about our electronic braking distribution system, then went to lunch with him in Spain and went home with 780 pages of drawings, diagrams, data, and everything else to design, develop, manage and race a 2007 Ferrari Formula 1 single-seater. As confirmed by the Paris decision itself, the infringement already lies in the mere possession of information, which in itself constitutes a huge advantage in a competition such as Formula 1. A sport where details make the difference".
Ferrari tried to make themselves heard before the World Council. They knew they had overwhelming evidence against McLaren, but their injured party nature relegated them to a marginal role. Jean Todt also intervenes on the matter:
"We were not given the opportunity to take active action as we would have liked. I could only ask a few questions and answer others. We were not allowed to present our arguments and the documents supporting them".
However, the fact remains that the FIA verdict has puzzled everyone.
"This decision remains very disappointing. It is not acceptable to set a precedent in such an important case, in which the proven guilt of a serious and persistent breach of the fundamental principle of sporting loyalty does not automatically lead to a sanction. For our part, we will go ahead with the legal actions taking place in Italy and England and we do not rule out taking other actions".
The point is precisely this: Ferrari is considering what initiatives to take against this ruling. It has seven days to lodge an appeal, in which case it will have to sign it through the CSAI (Italian Motor Sports Commission), chaired by Luigi Macaluso, one of the judges (the only Italian) present Thursday in Paris. From the statement in support of the verdict issued by the FIA, it is understood that, in case of new evidence, McLaren risks exclusion from this World Championship and from the 2008 one, Ferrari will try to increase its own dossier, the war is now on, and Maranello would not mind an expulsion of their rivals. Jean Todt adds:
"It remains incomprehensible that, in addition to possession, actual and visible use on the McLaren car must also be demonstrated. The very fact that, according to the information available, the FIA found McLaren guilty shows that the offence lies in the possession itself, without there being any need to prove anything else. The evidence is there and it is what led to the decision of the FIA: I find it difficult to understand the meaning of the verdict. I would also point out that the evidence of actual use required by the FIA is impossible for Ferrari to bring, as we do not have access to the McLaren car".
But there is more. Jean Todt also reveals a backstory.
"After the Australian Grand Prix, Ron Dennis proposed an agreement to establish better relations between the two teams, avoiding possible mutual complaints to the sports authority. I told him it was impossible for me to believe him because they had not kept their commitments too many times. However, I agreed to sign this agreement on June 9. Throughout that time and even after, McLaren was fully aware not only of the emails sent by Stepney but also that Coughlan had remained in contact with him and continued to be in possession of a large amount of technical information belonging to us. On the one hand, we were told to trust each other. On the other hand, there were very serious facts hidden".
In the meantime, the indignation of the Tifosi is huge. Someone even invites Chairman Montezemolo to withdraw Ferrari from the Formula 1 World Championship. Leaving the Ferrari headquarters, where he had attended a long meeting with the other top leaders of the team, Chairman Montezemolo states:
"To the Tifosi who are contacting Ferrari from all around the world, offended by the decision taken in Paris, I say that they can rest assured. Because this story will not end here".
The president does not add anything else, postponing his tough stance until the next few days; but before saying anything more, Montezemolo still wants to think the case through. It is also not clear how Ferrari intends to move forward. For now, there is only the frontal attack by Jean Todt, soon to be added the decision on whether or not to appeal against the Paris ruling. In addition, there is the investigation that Maranello's team has entrusted to the investigative study in London. If new evidence emerges, it will be forwarded to the FIA.
"Few penalty points or nothing at all".
Nigel Stepney had theorised in the office of his lawyers Sonia Bartolini and Barbara Pini. And when the FIA verdict was read out to him on Thursday afternoon, the former Ferrari chief mechanic sighed:
"I knew it, now my position is also lightened".
The problem for the disloyal technician is that there are two investigations in progress - one by the High Court of London that is transposing material from investigators and lawyers hired by Ferrari, the other by the Prosecutor's Office of Modena assisted by the cyber police of Modena, Bologna and Rome - that do not have time constraints (the FIA needed to decide quickly) nor need to prove that a clandestine act (the collection of industrial documents) was then applied to a new prototype. There are three hypotheses of crime - espionage, industrial theft as well as initial sabotage - and the judicial offices take the time to prove them. After 50 days of investigation, the results of the Italian investigation begin to come out. From the home computer voluntarily handed over by Nigel Stepney - and from the three PCs, the three multimedia phones, and the six mobiles seized - elements are emerging that already on Monday, 30 July 2007, the public prosecutor Giuseppe Tibis will examine and that in September will become organic in the indictment. There is, for example, a (deleted) email in which Stepney announces to his colleague Coughlan at McLaren the arrival of Ferrari secrets. The High Court and the Italian police agree on one fact: the electronic correspondence between Stepney and Coughlan, the chief designer at McLaren, was already underway in March. Nigel, before March 18, 2007, reported to his friend Mike the irregularities of the Ferrari floor and the flap separators of the rear wing. According to the prosecution on that date three people in McLaren are aware of the unfaithful tips: chief designer Coughlan, chief engineer Lowe and chief operations Whitmarsh. Later, the clandestine information will reach the chief operating officer Neale. And the 780 pages that Nigel Stepney will deliver to Mike Coughlan in April will be seen by Rob Taylor, head of McLaren designers. All of this will become judicial charges in September. And at the end of the season, the FIA will have to take that into account. There can be no calm. Although on Saturday 28 July 2007, apparently nothing is moving inside Ferrari. No summit meetings, no exchange of views between the top leaders, Montezemolo and Todt in the lead, and above all, no final decision on how to react to the Paris ruling. But calm, after the thunderous storm, cannot appear because, according to Ferrari, the decision of the FIA not to act was too serious, too ambiguous and contradictory a verdict that recognises McLaren's disloyalty, but does not consider it appropriate to punish them. The FIA has in fact saved McLaren, although it has actually left an open door threatening their exclusion from two World Championships, the current one and the next, if new facts come to light. Ferrari is now precisely intending to focus on this open door.
Reactions to the Paris ruling can be many, Maranello has not yet decided whether to appeal, they are considering whether it is right to add to the criminal complaint about Nigel Stepney also one in Italy about Mike Coughlan, the chief designer at McLaren who has received the 780 pages of secrets, broadening the front of the battle with McLaren which, for now, provides only a civil case in England at the judicial level. But they are working on one thing for sure: the attempt, however difficult, to find new elements that could nullify the first ruling of the World Council. This is because at Ferrari, more than the indigestible FIA ruling, they did not accept Ron Dennis. It was Jean Todt himself (who also quarrelled with him inside the council) in his indictment, revealing that a mutual loyalty, non-belligerency agreement had been signed with the McLaren boss on June 9, 2007.
"Let's trust each other, let's no longer accuse each other in front of the FIA, let's lay our cards on the table, let's improve our relations".
This is the summary of the agreement, which Ferrari now holds like a knife and considers totally betrayed.
"But how did Dennis invite us to collaborate and then hide from us that one of his men had all our secrets?"
An attitude that infuriated the team from Maranello. Hence the desire to go all the way, not to stand by and watch. Because, Ferrari points out, one cannot claim fairness (Dennis spoke of the triumph of justice and honesty after the Paris ruling) after these types of actions. One cannot cry at Silverstone in front of the world press, showing shock at the unexpected storm that has descended on the team after their hypocritical conduct up to that point (it was July 5, 2007). Points of view, of course, McLaren thinks the opposite way, which contribute to unleashing Ferrari. By now, Jean Todt has made it clear, it is open war. To McLaren and especially to Ron Deenis. Montezemolo's sentence, this story does not end here, it is not just a slogan. It is a watchword. Maranello's offensive will last a long time. On and off track. On Monday, July 30, 2007, with orange flip-flops on his feet and that goatee around his chin that has made him famous, Nigel Stepney slyly climbs the driveway that leads from the front door to the gate, reaches between the bars, but the gate does not open. Nigel remains inside the apartment building in Stella di Serramazzoni, three stone and brick houses on the Apennines of Modena, eighteen kilometres of curves from Maranello, and from there he begins to tell his truth about the Ferrari-McLaren clash, the most explosive case of espionage ever seen in Formula 1. Nigel Stepney, Ferrari mechanics' track manager until last January, had never spoken to Italian journalists in this way. Now, protected by a wide-barred gate, he chooses to open up:
“Sorry not to let you in, but my partner and three-year-old daughter are in here. Ferrari had henchmen on my tail until yesterday. They followed me everywhere. I'd stop by the gas station, and they'd be there, and I'd go in the stores, and they'd be there. They followed me all the way during holidays from Modena to France through Liguria. They can do whatever they want with me, but they have to leave my family out of it”.
Mr. Stepney, are they still tailing you?
"They stopped when I reported everything to the British newspapers. That is why I did the interview, Ferrari understood.".
How can you be sure that the gentlemen who followed you were sent by Ferrari?
"I can say that with conviction. I know Maranello's people well, I've worked there for fourteen years".
Why do you not go and tell everything to the Modena Prosecutor’s office? Half an hour's drive and you get over with it.
"My lawyers have already filed a complaint against unknown persons and I am willing to be heard at any time".
For now, the only suspect in this story is you, for sabotage. That powder in the Ferrari engines was highly destructive.
"I did not pour it in. They put the powder in my pants pocket while I was showering in Maranello's racing department".
You are saying they framed you. Why would that be?
"Listen to this story, then draw whatever conclusion you want. I've been in Formula 1 for 28 years and at Ferrari for 14 years. When I arrived in 1993, the team was down, they were no longer winning and they couldn't even imagine when they would return to winning. They called my friend Ross Brawn and everything changed. Twenty new people around Michael Schumacher and an unbeatable team was born. We won everything, but eventually at the top something broke. And Brawn left last season".
Did he leave or was he sent away?
"I can't say everything now. I'll tell you what. In November of last year, I understood that Ferrari would not count on me, and in January, I would have been out of the racing world. I started looking around and found that two, three other people inside the company were dissatisfied and ready to change company. I continued the search and found two, three more technicians ready for a new adventure. They work for other teams. With six people, you can start from scratch, and create another team in Formula 1".
Which team and under whose orders?
"Which one I don't tell you, but my friend Ross Brawn would have led it".
Let's say Honda. Where you showed up in June with your friend Mike Coughlan, McLaren's chief designer, and 780 pages of Ferrari drawings under your arm.
"I didn't take any drawings away from Ferrari".
Coughlan had the Ferrari designs at his home in England: someone must have passed them on to him and you, his old friend, a technician on bad terms with Ferrari, are the natural suspect.
"Someone passed the drawings, but it wasn't me. Someone set a trap for me and is still in Ferrari".
Is it one of those two, or three gentlemen who you thought were ready to leave with you?
"I don't want to involve any more colleagues. I'm aware of a part of the story, not everything. Ferrari knows the whole story".
Tell us, at least, if you believe that the possible trap was organised by the Maranello management.
"I'm ready to go to the Public Prosecutor to tell the truth".
Was it you who pointed out to Coughlan that at the World Championship first round in Melbourne, Ferrari's floor was illegal?
"I think that the McLaren technicians worked it out by themselves. That floor was illegal in most Formula 1 teams and, in fact, everyone changed from the second race".
And from the second race onwards, Ferrari lost that one-second advantage that they had on McLaren. The British gained clandestine information about the rival car, and their driver, Lewis Hamilton, gradually became the fastest of all.
"McLaren, like all Formula 1 teams, uses the first race of the year to capture the cars from the other teams in all detail. Photographers stand closer and further and take shots, then the teams buy the shots. Ferrari also does that. In the racing department of Maranello, we have all the photos of the rivals exposed and for the rest of the season we study them, we capture their advantages".
More stories of modern espionage.
"The easiest way is to take the chief designer away from a rival team. Nicholas Tombazis from Ferrari went to McLaren and came back to Ferrari last year. It's not a coincidence that the nose of the F2007 is the same as that of the British team. And so is Adrian Newey, from McLaren to Red Bull Racing. But these engineers are taking their ideas with them, not stealing designs".
Over the past few days, you have asked Jean Todt to meet you, as if you were looking for a deal.
"It was the Ferrari lawyers who contacted my lawyers on July 11: they wanted to fix things, they said, and I wasn't interested. Then, after a second contact, on July 14, I said that I was available for a meeting. But not with the lawyers, with the executive managers. And Ferrari has made a big public rejection".
Now, you are out of Formula 1.
"I've already found another job, far from Italy".
Is it in Formula 1, perhaps at McLaren?
"Nothing in Formula 1. And, also, I don't like Ron Dennis. I've met him only once and he offered me a job in Japan. But he can go to Japan himself".
Ferrari's response to Nigel Stepney's revelations is a board meeting convened in Maranello to give full powers to Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Jean Todt and Mario Almondo. The board meeting ends on Tuesday, July 31, 2007, mid-afternoon, with a war decision: Ferrari goes ahead with all the legal actions undertaken so far and signs two complaints against the former chief mechanic, Nigel Stepney, who decided to challenge them.
At 4:00 p.m. - Luca Montezemolo and Fiat Chairman Sergio Marchionne, connected from the outside for a board meeting already scheduled but turned at the last moment to non-sporting matters - the board of directors gave the Chairman, the Director and General Manager all the necessary powers to promote and support judicial actions in the name of the company, even additional and different to the proceedings underway, in any judicial, civil, penal, administrative, sporting or arbitration forum and at any level of jurisdiction in Italy or abroad. Nigel Stepney's interview with the Italian media fuels the strength of Ferrari's reaction. And so, having been allowed to appeal by the FIA, the Italian company decided to concentrate their efforts on Nigel Stepney, already investigated for the anonymous powder found in the race team from Maranello and in the tanks of Kimi Raïkkönen's F2007. Against him comes this second lawsuit, which comes on top of the notice of indictment issued by the public prosecutor Tibis on the first Ferrari complaint and the two hundred pages of internal investigation recently delivered to the Public Prosecutor's office. And this is the sabotage chapter (added to damage and sporting fraud). Then there is the violation of industrial secrecy, the exchange of emails and papers between Nigel Stepney and Mike Coughlan. The Public Prosecutor's office has not contested anything regarding that yet. And then Ferrari, which had already submitted a thin report complaint to the Public Prosecutor on July 3, 2007, chose to file a second lawsuit against Nigel Stepney for theft of technical information. Again, the board gave full authority to pursue civil action in the High Court in London against Mike Coughlan, McLaren's chief designer, and his wife Trudy, also concerning the theft of information. Indeed. Ferrari in its accusatory thrust, has one certainty, deduced from the papers produced in London: Stepney received phone calls from Coughlan to get indications about the breakdown of Ferrari's electronic braking distribution system, Stepney passed Coughlan the 780 pages of plans and drawings that came out of Maranello, Stepney and Coughlan agreed to lunch in Barcelona where the Ferrari technician handed over the voluminous parcel of Ferrari papers. Todt said all of this at the World Council in Paris, and all this was admitted by Ron Dennis himself, Ferrari points out. Stepney's defenders confirm that contacts between the two may have been made, but Stepney did not pass the papers to Coughlan. It was the English chief mechanic himself who indicated his convictions:
"Someone passed the drawings, but it's not me. Someone set a trap for me and is still in Ferrari".
Now his lawyers, who have hired a grey eminence from Formula 1 as a consultant to try to understand power games hitherto ungrasped, are adding details. Stepney is able to reconstruct the moment when the documents were allegedly stolen: those papers were stolen from the Ferrari computer system to which too many had access. So, the team defending the technician reconstructs the thesis of an agreement between people inside and outside Ferrari ready to use the confidential documents of the company from Maranello. These people would be the same people who were organising - along with Stepney and Coughlan - a new Formula 1 sports team. The lawyer Sonia Bartolini explains:
"He gave us the names of those who betrayed him. When Nigel has enough evidence, he'll go to the Modena prosecutor's office to name them".
In Nigel Stepney's defence, his lawyers could soon call Ross Brawn, the man who built the winning race team of the Michael Schumacher era:
"After his farewell to Ferrari, everything fell apart".
Ferrari concludes:
"The disloyal men within the company do not exist, Ross Brawn had announced a sabbatical two years earlier, Stepney is lying".
This week, Public Prosecutor Tibis will meet with the cyber police for an initial briefing on investigations made into seized computers and mobile phones. In the meantime, almost surprisingly, on Tuesday, July 31, 2007, after five days of controversy, the FIA backtracks and reopens the espionage case involving McLaren and Ferrari. It starts from scratch. It will start again, because an appeal will be lodged against the verdict of July 26, 2007. It is not Ferrari who is lodging it, the regulations did not allow it, but Max Mosley himself, who is appealing against the judge, who then, through the World Council, is the same person, given that it was the FIA itself that deemed McLaren non-punishable, with the powerful influence of its president and the unanimous approval of the 24 wise men (Todt had left the room) who were in the meeting with him. The World Council's decision to acquit the English team for lack of evidence and the Maranello team's inability to appeal sparked pandemonium. FIA President, Max Mosley, has therefore decided to turn the tables and announce that he will present the case to the Federation's Court of Appeal. The announcement is made in a letter published on the FIA website. Max Mosley made the decision after receiving a letter sent on Monday, July 30, 2007, by the President of ACI-CSAI, Luigi Macaluso. The Italian representative in the FIA World Council wrote that he was at a loss to justify the fact that a team was not penalised despite being found guilty of the violation of Article 151 paragraph C of the International Sporting Code. In fact, at the World Council meeting, it was proved that McLaren had repeatedly violated the rules but was acquitted because there was no proof that they had benefited from that. Macaluso writes:
"We are afraid that the decision will set a dangerous precedent for this sport".
According to the President of ACI-CSAI, this fact would have suggested an intervention by Max Mosley. However, Macaluso also argues the need for Ferrari and the other teams to be able to explain their reasons and defend their rights. In the Paris trial, Ferrari was only an observer and did not have the opportunity to explain its reasons. After hearing the arguments of Luigi Macaluso, which coincided with those of Ferrari, Max Mosley decided to submit the matter to the FIA's Court of Appeal. According to the President of the Federation, this is a political decision, due to the seriousness of the affair and to the fact that Ferrari was precluded by the regulations from appealing.
"If indeed the top men of the McLaren team have been aware of the Ferrari secrets for several months, one can speak about an unlawful and unfair advantage of performance, both technical and strategic. This story has too many suspicious elements. The most serious one? Why did Coughlan have to meet Stepney to ask him to stop, wouldn't a simple phone call be enough? In Paris, we did not find enough evidence, but if a more widespread listening of Ferrari can give a different verdict, it is right to give them this possibility".
However, the President of the FIA does not repudiate the decision taken on Thursday, July 26, 2007.
"In the absence of unequivocal evidence that McLaren received and used information from Ferrari, it does not seem appropriate to take punitive action against the team".
Max Mosley's decision reopens the case and Maranello welcomes the turnaround.
" Ferrari judges the decision of the FIA President to be sensible".
According to the opinion coming from the team of Maranello, the Federation has correctly considered that Ferrari, as an injured party in the affair, should be able to enjoy all the rights of a party in a trial, which was not the case at the hearing of the World Council.
However, the referral back to the Court of Appeal is bad news for McLaren. Norbert Haug comments:
"We calmly welcome the decision of the FIA, we are fully convinced that we have not broken any rules".
Later in the evening, however, the English team issued a tough statement.
"It is just a useless waste of time, the result of a misleading press campaign organised by Ferrari, compounded by pressure from the Automobile Club of Italy on the FIA. There is no new evidence, the verdict will be the same as a few days ago. Unanimous acquittal".
Ron Dennis, in a long letter to Judge Macaluso (to whom the letter was addressed, because it was he, with his doubts about the decision, who convinced Mosley on the advisability of a second trial), as well as defending his team to the hilt, launches violent invectives against Ferrari, guilty of wanting to undermine McLaren's reputation with an unfair and mystifying press campaign.
"Our image has been heavily undermined by incorrect articles published in Italy and by highly false statements by Ferrari. This is a fantastic World Championship, one of the best in recent years, and it would be a tragedy if it were destroyed by the actions of a Ferrari employee and a McLaren employee, people who acted on their own behalf and for their own purposes, without the slightest connection to Ferrari or McLaren".
But there is more. Everything that Dennis affirms is written on paper (the letter to Macaluso is long and detailed, with the explicit accusation of having only listened to Ferrari's version), and, for the first time, the McLaren boss admits to having learned from an e-mail from Stepney that Ferrari's floor in the first Grand Prix of the season, in his opinion of course, was illegal. Dennis defines Stepney's action as a healthy confession and says that such behaviour in Formula 1 should be encouraged, not stopped.
"Without Stepney's drawing, which drew McLaren's attention to the illegal detail of Ferrari, there is reason to suppose that Ferrari would have continued to compete with an illegal car".
And here is the staggering conclusion:
"It is in the interests of Formula 1 that healthy confessions are encouraged and not discouraged. If team members understand that their identities can be revealed, they will no longer make them".
Confessions are therefore welcomed: in order to have them, it is only fair that they should also be anonymous. In the letter, Dennis, after having confessed that he knew about the first e-mail, reiterates that he knew nothing about everything else (the 780-page dossier passed from Stepney's hands to Coughlan's).
"Of course, McLaren knew about the March tip, but that has nothing to do with the material Coughlan received on April 28. We knew nothing about that. Coughlan acted against the explicit instructions of his superiors without involving nor benefiting the team".
The McLaren boss summarises the different stages of the affair in his indictment, describing his own version:
"The only truth, the FIA will continue to give us full reason".
He disputes the hypothesis that, in the first instance, Ferrari was unable to present their arguments properly.
"They delivered a 118-page dossier, dated 16 July 2007, circulated within the World Council as early as 20 July 2007, and only seen by us on 24 July 2007, two days before the hearing in Paris, with great effort on our part to challenge and correct its decidedly inaccurate content".
And he concludes that the Ferrari press campaign has damaged Formula 1 at least as much as McLaren, that the World Championships should be fought on the circuit and not in the courtrooms or in the newspapers, and that he believes that, even before the Court of Appeal, justice will prevail and McLaren will not be penalised. Meanwhile, Ross Brawn, former technical director of Maranello's team, denied Nigel Stepney:
"Ferrari is the only team or group with which I have discussed my future. All the other rumours that link me to other teams or projects are as inaccurate as they are pure speculations".
It is, therefore, not true that he headed a group of six former or current Ferrari employees, ready to leave Maranello's team and move to another team. There is also news on the judicial front. Yesterday, Ferrari filed a new complaint against Stepney. That complaint was revealed by Deputy Public Prosecutor Giuseppe Tibis, head of the investigation into the attempted sabotage at Ferrari before the Monaco Grand Prix. Sources close to Maranello make it known that it is a further complaint (to be added to that of the attempted sabotage) regarding the theft of technical information, the infamous documents (780 pages) found then in possession of Coughlan, McLaren's currently suspended chief designer. On Thursday, 2 August 2007, Ferrari's anger at the first judgement in Paris and Ron Dennis's written invective, which in a letter to Judge Macaluso heavily accuses the Maranello team, is followed by the surreal climate in Hungary, with the obvious tension, the increasingly fierce conflict between the two teams that no one can hide anymore, and above all McLaren's press silence, something unprecedented in Formula 1. The team that, for the sake of expediency, gags its drivers, makes Fernando Alonso, with the permission of the FIA, not attend the official press conference, armour-plates and harasses Lewis Hamilton, who is obliged to take part in a side-event demanded by Vodafone, but with the obligation to speak only of trivialities, the event itself, maybe the race on Sunday, August 5, 2007, but certainly not of the exciting spy story, the Nigel Stepney and Mike Coughlan cases, the Paris trials and the abundant poisons that are flooding the pits. In Bernie Ecclestone's Formula 1, if you show up late for a few minutes at a press conference, you will be fined 5,000 euros (it happened to Alexander Wurz, Williams driver, at the Canadian Grand Prix), rather than skipping it as the Spaniard did. But a McLaren spokeswoman explains:
"But he had permission".
The team, in light of the latest controversy raised by Ron Dennis, had already decided in the morning not to let their drivers speak, made it known to the Federation and got the approval. No sanction, for once it can be done, let Ferrari expose itself, the McLaren drivers will return to talk on Friday, and a meeting with the TVs is planned, while on Saturday, there will be the ritual Meet the Team, the meeting that Ron Dennis and Norbert Haug, the Mercedes manager, have every Saturday with the world press. Silence. So there is no risk of mistakes, misunderstandings or incidents. A remedy, however, that also highlights a certain nervousness on the part of McLaren, a team that now feels surrounded. A truce with Ferrari? Not a chance. Since the beginning of the year, the British team's base in the paddock has been in contact with that of the Maranello team, but on Thursday - for the first time - the gigantic motorhome is moved to the middle, next to the Honda team, to avoid close encounters. Not only that, the espionage psychosis is also spreading. Thus, the windows are protected by gigantic bulkheads, too close, and especially in front, are the Ferrari trucks, maybe some prying eyes can escape.
In this environment, with the shadow of the new trial that hovers disturbingly on the heads of all (in Paris, in addition to McLaren and Ferrari, Renault, Honda and BMW, third parties interested at various levels could intervene), one should think of a race, of McLaren's desire to escape (penalties permitting), which thinks to do very well in Budapest, of Ferrari's eagerness to make a comeback, certain that it has found the right traction to deal with this tortuous circuit, but any technical talk is impossible. Even Ferrari's drivers, albeit with the necessary precautions, are forced to intervene in the war. Kimi Raïkkönen would like to be ecumenical:
"It would be great if the World Championship was decided on track instead of in a courtroom".
But then he responds sharply to Ron Dennis who questioned his Melbourne triumph:
"My car is illegal? He's wrong, I would have been disqualified".
And Felipe Massa adds:
"There are spies and spies. These are bad for Formula 1, we need justice".
The one that Macaluso insists on asking, responding in writing to Ron Dennis:
"You and Ferrari have two opposing points of view, it is therefore only right for a Court of Appeal to settle the matter. Ferrari is entitled to make their case. You have breached the regulations, this is a very sensitive case, and the precedent that is set cannot be dangerous. But, it has to become case law for many years".
As if the problems with the spy story were not enough, Michael Schumacher, in Hungary, says:
"My role at Ferrari continues to be unclear. I would like to have a slightly more precise place. To have access to more information in order to better help the team".
Sentences that indicate a certain dissatisfaction. For months, there has been talk of this super consultant, the very experienced driver who should have given valuable advice to the current drivers and the team, but evidently, at least in his head, this is not the case. It is likely that Michael Schumacher, who has already attended several Grands Prix this year and was also present on Sunday, July 22, 2007, at the Nürburgring, was hoping for something better. As is his custom, however, he emphasises this with a low profile, without polemics, in soft and polite tones.
"I have not yet managed to find a key position within the team. I am fascinated to contribute to the development of road cars, but I thought I could also make an impact in Formula 1. When you stop, the most complicated thing is to carve out a role that fulfils you. I feel good, I can spend a lot of time with my family, but at work, I feel like I could do something more".
It is not enough for him to be an image man, an outstanding ambassador. Michael Schumacher has always been a field man and at this moment, he feels a little caged in.
"The accusations of Dennis? They are serious and false".
They do not mince words, at Ferrari. They waited a day before replying to the McLaren boss who, through a letter to Luigi Macaluso, in addition to challenging Max Mosley's choice to appeal the Paris ruling, had called the remarks of Nigel Stepney healthy spying and made heavy insinuations about Maranello's car which had triumphed in Melbourne. Shocking statements, to which Ferrari violently replied with an official note.
"With regard to McLaren's claims about the 2007 Australian Grand Prix, Ferrari would like to strongly state that the letter contains both serious and false accusations. Contrary to McLaren’s assertion, Ferrari never benefited from any advantage obtained illegally. The two F2007s used in the Australian Grand Prix were found to comply with the technical regulations: if there were any illegalities they would have been disqualified. The subsequent implementation by the FIA is a common practice. The FIA considered it appropriate to clarify the interpretation of the regulation and then requested the teams involved to make the necessary changes. At the next hearing of the FIA International Court of Appeal, Ferrari will fully explain their position regarding the whole affair".
A rather annoyed note which keeps alive the great war between the two teams, now the dominant theme of the current F1, even more than the fight on the track, although in Budapest they will fight for a fundamental pole position (on this circuit they cannot overtake, who starts first has more than half a victory in his pocket) and on Sunday they will look for the triumph in the race. Ferrari responded to McLaren and, curiously enough, never named Ron Dennis, who now became the number one enemy, not even worth mentioning. As Kimi Raïkkönen had affirmed on Thursday:
"Dennis is wrong, my car was perfectly within the regulations in Australia".
Ferrari fiercely defended the first success of the season. And they concluded by postponing everything to the appeal of Paris, a sort of reckoning, not scheduled in late August, as suggested at first but more probably on September 13, after the Italian Grand Prix and on the eve of the Belgium one. Ferrari defend themselves, but McLaren do not stand by. Perhaps Fernando Alonso is right when he affirms:
"They told me not to speak to the press and I have adapted, but I am calm; perhaps my leaders are not that calm".
The fact is, Ron Dennis seems to be in the grip of graphic schizophrenia. On Friday, August 3, 2007, he writes to Luigi Macaluso:
"Ferrari had ample opportunity to submit their accusations, 118 pages of files plus all the questions they wanted to ask our lawyers. Their anger is not due to insufficient opportunity to attack us but to dissatisfaction with the outcome of the Paris hearing. I accept the appeal, as they will prove us right again".
Luigi Macaluso's new response was also immediate:
"Let the International Court of Appeal decide. And let's end this controversy here".