McLaren exposed by spy evidenceBy Andrew Benson
BBC SportMcLaren received a systematic flow of information from a spy within rivals Ferrari for nearly three months this year, the FIA has revealed.
Drivers Fernando Alonso and Pedro de la Rosa were aware of the information.
It was the possession of this "highly sensitive" data that led the FIA to fine McLaren ?49.2m and deduct their constructors' championship points.
The information came to McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan from Ferrari chief mechanic Nigel Stepney.
The data McLaren received over the three-month period concerned the Ferrari car's brakes, weight distribution, aerodynamic balance and tyre inflation.
In a 16-page document, the FIA said e-mails showed that test driver De la Rosa and reigning world champion Alonso had been aware of the Ferrari data.
All the information from Ferrari is very reliable
Pedro de la Rosa in an e-mail to Fernando Alonso on 25 March
"The emails show unequivocally that both Mr Alonso and Mr de la Rosa received confidential Ferrari information via Mike Coughlan.
"Both drivers knew that this information was confidential Ferrari information and that both knew that the information was being received by Coughlan from Nigel Stepney," the report states.
In what is being viewed as the most damning section of the report, the FIA has published an e-mail exchange between De la Rosa and Alonso.
"All the information from Ferrari is very reliable," De la Rosa wrote to Alonso on 25 March in an exchange about the Ferrari's weight distribution.
"It comes from Nigel Stepney, their former chief mechanic - I don't know what post he holds now.
"He's the same person who told us in Australia that Kimi (Raikkonen) was stopping in lap 18. He's very friendly with Mike Coughlan, our chief designer and he told him that."
These are the main points raised in the statement on the FIA website:
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Coughlan had more information than previously appreciated
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Information included sensitive technical information and sporting strategy
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De la Rosa requested and received secret Ferrari data
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The information was shared with Alonso
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Intention by McLaren personnel to use data in their own testing
McLaren has refused to comment on the FIA's revelations, published on the eve of the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa.
The extent of the information Coughlan received about the Ferrari goes far beyond what was revealed at a first meeting of the FIA's world motorsport council in July.
At that time, the FIA decided not to punish McLaren because there was no proof the information had been used "in such a way as to interfere with the running of the FIA F1 world championship".
But the new evidence persuaded the world council to change its verdict at Thursday's meeting.
De la Rosa revealed plans to test Ferrari's weight distribution in McLaren's simulator, plans that were later abandoned.
It was revealed that Alonso agreed it was "very important" that McLaren tried out the gas Ferrari were using to inflate their car's tyres.
It also emerged that De la Rosa had asked Coughlan for specific details of Ferrari's braking system, and that the designer revealed to the test driver "we are looking at something similar".
The document appears to explode the view that this was only a case of two rogue employees using the information to find better jobs at other teams, and that the confidential information had not been circulated within McLaren, as the team contended at the first world council meeting.
The world council said it had decided to inflict such a heavy punishment on McLaren because "there was an intention on the part of a number of McLaren personnel to use some of the Ferrari confidential information in its own testing".
It added: "The evidence leads the WMSC to conclude that some degree of sporting advantage was obtained, though it may forever be impossible to quantify that advantage in concrete terms."
Alonso and team-mate Lewis Hamilton were not punished in the drivers' championship because "primary responsibility lies with McLaren, and also because McLaren's drivers were offered individual sanction" for telling the world council what they knew.
Now the mofo's fucking deserve it.