Wow this is getting serious

from Planet-F1.com

"Ferrari claim that their performance development chief stole intellectual property rights from the Italian marque and passed them on to the chief designer of rivals McLaren."

http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3213_2467386,00.html

my dad told me about this a little while ago, its crazy insane

its crazy insane

or insane crazy :stickoutt

there's the answer of why they are going so well this season..... in comparisson with the last one

This could be a HUGE stink before its over. Looking forward to reading about what really went on!

Ferrari Claims Mclaren Stole Docs



That's one misleading title.

So far, the only known facts are, Ferrari's employee stole the documents, and they were found at a McLaren senior engineer's residence. The 2 individuals involved acted on their own behave. At this point there's no evidence that suggests otherwise.

Ferrari have not accused McLaren as a company for anything, yet.

This could be a HUGE stink before its over. Looking forward to reading about what really went on!

That could be a long time before we really find out.

I don't think McLaren, as a team, knowingly did any wrongdoing, but it's not good when one of your engineers has a rivals team documents at his home.

We shall wait and see

That's one misleading title.

Ferrari have not accused McLaren as a company for anything, yet.

You're right..I need to be working for the Sun or New York Post!

Also, when it comes to news, Planet-F1.com is the tabloid of the F1 world. Take what they publish with a grain of salt.

I trust Grandprix.com or those subscription sites for more accurate and in-depth news.

You're right..I need to be working for the Sun or New York Post!

With these scandals, it's very easy for people to assume that way. Just more drama to a classic F1 season.

This is what I understand:

Nigel Stepney got pissed off that they overlooked him for promotion. He decides to start passing off info to his good friend Mike Coughlan, McLaren chief designer.

Stepney got fired and Coughlan is suspended. McLaren asked the FIA to investigate as well. Bernie says this should not affect WC standings.

Definitely adds to the drama of an already close season. I used to think Stepney was a good guy. He claims it is a big smear campaign to ruin his career. Will we ever know? The police did find Ferrari info at Coughlan's residence when they searched it. That can't be good...

Also remember that Nigel Stepney was originally suspended by Ferrari right after USGP 3 weeks ago. At that time Ferrari's explanation was that Stepney was responsible for the attempt to sabotage the Ferrari F1 cars before the Monaco Grand Prix (white powder found in both Ferrari's fuel tanks). Now, stealing tech info and sabotaging are 2 completely different matters, especially the latter is quite a risk for a senior engineer to take on his own.

Another interesting thing I've noticed is that some reputable sources have yet to name the suspended McLaren engineer, even though it's pretty much confirmed that it's Mike Coughlan.

If all of this is true, Nigel Stepney has some major psychological issues to deal with and maybe this is why he didn't get promoted. One thing is certain, he probably won't get a second chance to do it again.

If all of this is true, Nigel Stepney has some major psychological issues to deal with and maybe this is why he didn't get promoted. One thing is certain, he probably won't get a second chance to do it again.

Honda will take anyone right now :rofl

Now, stealing tech info and sabotaging are 2 completely different matters, especially the latter is quite a risk for a senior engineer to take on his own.

Two sides of the same coin.

It would be interesting to know how pervasive this kind of thing is in F1, or pro motorsports in general.

Honda will take anyone right now :rofl
Haha...too true

Apparently Coughlan went to a copy place to photocopy some of the pages and a guy thay worked there noticed they were confidential Ferrari documents. That is how Ferrari found out about it. They are also saying another McLaren employee is now under suspicion.

I really don't see how McLaren has a lot to gain from doing this. It wouldn't really effect the design of their car. Maybe give them some ideas. It supposedly did inlcude stuff like pit strategy and such, but that always changes.

Also, when it comes to news, Planet-F1.com is the tabloid of the F1 world. Take what they publish with a grain of salt.

I trust Grandprix.com or those subscription sites for more accurate and in-depth news.

or Formula1.com :)

I really don't see how McLaren has a lot to gain from doing this. It wouldn't really effect the design of their car. Maybe give them some ideas. It supposedly did inlcude stuff like pit strategy and such, but that always changes.
I'm sure this is prevalent among all the top teams. What's surprising is that Coughlan and Stephney were stupid enough to get caught doing it. Copying confidential materials at a public copy shop ... how dumb was that? Personal scanner/copiers are dirt cheap these days!

I really don't see how McLaren has a lot to gain from doing this. It wouldn't really effect the design of their car. Maybe give them some ideas. It supposedly did inlcude stuff like pit strategy and such, but that always changes.
wtf are you talking about?
of course McLaren would have something to gain if this would be true.... especially in car dynamics

[QUOTE=Alpine torque;9973164]wtf are you talking about?
of course McLaren would have something to gain if this would be true.... especially in car dynamics[/QUOTE


I agree, any andvantage is an advantage...especailly when you are fighting between tenths and hundreths of a second on the track.

Interesting...Any updates on this?

Haha...too true

No, really . . .

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/60550

:rofl :lol :lol3 :rofl2
I called that shit!

No, really . . .

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/60550

:rofl :lol :lol3 :rofl2
I called that shit!

I think Honda is safe, I mean who in their right mind would think that Honda employed anything from Ferrari in their current set up.

wtf are you talking about?
of course McLaren would have something to gain if this would be true.... especially in car dynamics

Ok, they won't gain a lot, but they may have gotten something out of it. The cars are very different and the main design of them took place like a year ago. But like I said i may have given them ideas or things to try.

It does look like Stepney and Coughlan have been in cahoots for a while though, so it may have had a greater impact.

I heard there may be another person within McLaren that they are looking at...

wtf are you talking about?
of course McLaren would have something to gain if this would be true.... especially in car dynamics

ok, give an example?

ok, give an example?

Any aero data or information could have been useful. Imagine ferrari's wing profiles show up at McLaren's CFD department's door.

Mclaren could learn critical data on how the Ferrari performs in a draft situation. They could in turn design some flow disruption device that could cause the Ferrari to lose performance in a situation where drafting could be used. Or maybe they could learn that a cooling system corner was cut and that the Ferrari would overheat in some situations. Maybe they could learn something about Ferrari's tire wear. There are many things.

Now, I have no doubt Mclaren did not STEAL anything from Ferrari. I do believe that they have made full use of all information they were GIVEN. They would be fools not to do so. F1 is a multi BILLION dollar (or Euro if you like) endevor. Wins = Money. Lots of money.

Once again, according to the reports, only 2 McLaren engineers have actually seen the stolen Ferrari document. There was not much they could do on their own to apply anything to the cars, the whole development team have to be involved. These two individuals wanted to keep the whole thing secretive, it'd be foolish for them to expose what they had, even to their colleagues.

At this point it's too early to determine whether Mclaren as a team gained anything or not. The engineers in question certainly did, but that does not mean McLaren as a team made use of the information. According to the reports, the document changed hands at the end of April, too late for any significant changes to be done on the MP4-22. Also, keep in mind that the MP4-22 was quick and reliable right from the beginning, and its performance has indeed been consistent. To say the Mclarens are doing well because of this scandal is just downright ridiculous.

Everyone assumes that Stepney stole the document, or in other words Mike Coughlan took possesion of the document for McLaren. But the simple fact is that we don't know their intentions yet. The latest report says that Nigel Stepney's plan was to take a team of top engineers, including the McLaren personels, to Honda F1 as confirmed by Nick Fry of Honda. It's quite possible that the document was stolen, passed around and studied for this group of engineers' future plan - next year's Honda.

Further twist....

AUTOSPORT.com



Stepney denies giving Coughlan documents

By Biranit GorenSaturday, July 7th 2007, 22:59 GMT

• Nigel Stepney's full account of the affair (http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/60613#full_account)


Nigel Stepney has publicly denied any wrongdoing in the espionage affair that has revolved around him, rejecting accusations that he had transferred secret Ferrari documents to McLaren's chief designer Mike Coughlan.
Stepney has been under criminal investigation in Italy following action taken by Ferrari, who accused the Briton of stealing information from the team's Maranello factory and transferring it to other Formula One teams.
McLaren have suspended Coughlan earlier this week after a house search allegedly unravelled hundreds of documents belonging to Ferrari, while the Italian dismissed Stepney when he was on vacation in the Philippines.
Stepney returned to Italy on Wednesday to face the criminal charges against him, but he has since left the country to an unknown location, claiming he was in danger while there.
"There have been high-speed car chases," Stepney told the British Sunday newspapers. "We've been followed by more than one car, with Italian plates, and when we cornered one of them last Thursday evening the men in it refused to speak.
"I don't believe they were journalists. [Girlfriend] Ash has been stalked at the house. There was tracking gear on my car. Someone was going to get hurt. I had no option but to get out of Italy."
Stepney was also adamant that he had done nothing wrong, specifically denying the claims that he had transferred to Coughlan hundreds of confidential pages from the Ferrari factory.
"I categorically deny that I copied them [the documents], or that I sent them to Mike Coughlan," Stepney told the newspaper. "I knew I was being watched all the time at the factory and that everything I did or said was being reported back and that people knew whenever I accessed files on the computer.
"I have no idea how anything came into Mike's possession. If he has some documents, they came from another source."
Stepney also said he was a victim of Ferrari's internal politics, saying his trouble began when he told the team management he was unhappy with his job.
'Ferrari took that badly," Stepney said. "I began to feel like I was some sort of traitor. As soon as I went against the system at Ferrari, I got squeezed.
"I'm anxious, naturally, but I haven't done anything wrong."



Nigel Stepney's full account of the affair:


"The first sign of a potential problem came in September last year when Ross Brawn said he would be taking a sabbatical and the technical management structure would be changing.
"I wanted to report to Aldo Costa, the head of chassis design. He was the right person to respond to. I didn't want to respond to Mario Almondo, the new technical director.
"By mid February, the relationship had started to break down. I couldn't work with them. I missed the one-to-one relationship with Ross. He knew exactly what I could do; I always had 100 per cent support from Ross. Now I had four or five people to report to. It was very frustrating.
"I told Jean Todt I didn't want to travel any more. I wanted to sit back and consider the future. Ferrari took that badly.
"My role became head of performance development based at the factory. I began to feel like I was some sort of traitor, just because I no longer wanted to travel.
"At that stage, I wasn't looking anywhere else. But whenever I discussed anything with people in the factory in the course of doing my job, it got fed back to senior management. People became scared to talk to me.
"I was put in a position where it was difficult to do my job. By the end of March the situation was unbearable. I started to look at other teams, and approached [Honda team chief] Nick Fry.
"I met up with Mike [Coughlan] at the end of April. I'd had one meeting with Nick and didn't want to go into a second one alone.
"At first, Mike wasn't looking at a move, although he was unhappy with the McLaren management. Then, three or four people at Ferrari indicated to me, after reading stories of my approach to Honda, that they would be interested in joining a technical group to go to another team. They wanted to follow us to go into a structure in which they felt comfortable.
"I categorically deny that any technical information passed between Mike and I during that meeting, or at any time.
"We mainly discussed the sort of infrastructure and tools we would need to get the job done in another team. I saw the future as helping to put such a structure into place at Honda.
"You don't just take one team's structure and bang it into another team. These things have to evolve, but Mike and I agreed to pool our expertise and talked about what we could bring to a team.
"Then we met Nick Fry together on 1 June at Heathrow.
"On 17 May, when there were legal moves against me by Ferrari, people were taken from the factory to the Carabinieri (Italian police) headquarters to be interviewed, but no charges were made against anyone.
"My house in Serramazzoni has been raided twice.
"After the thing with the Carabinieri, I called Jean Todt to say I was going on holiday to the Philippines - I'd filled in the relevant form but it was on my desk and I hadn't handed it in - and wouldn't be coming back until this was all sorted out. We haven't spoken since.
"I admit it looks blatantly obvious, but something is happening inside Ferrari.
"I was accused by Mario Almondo of taking some drawings. I had them in my possession legitimately because I needed them for work on the simulator, but it was reported to him by the drawing office that I had them. I got the papers and threw them on Almondo's desk. The next day they were back on mine!
"I categorically deny that I copied them, or that I sent them to Mike Coughlan. I knew I was being watched all the time at the factory and that everything I did or said was being reported back and that people knew whenever I accessed files on the computer.
"I have no idea how anything came into Mike's possession. I don't even know for sure that he has had documents. Do you know for sure? Categorically, he didn't get them from me. If he has some, then they came from another source.
"I would be a bit stupid to go anywhere if I had such material, wouldn't I? I put a lot of the systems and working practices in place at Ferrari, relating to the operations of the test and race teams and the preparation of the cars, information I am told was supposed to be in the documents.
"I had worked on them with Ross and Aldo Costa. So if I already had all that material in my head, why would I need it all again? I am seriously doubtful that Mike has these documents.
"I have nothing to hide; I might as well have left the keys to my house with the caretaker so anyone from Ferrari could go in.
"Ferrari is terrified that what I have in my mind is valuable. But do you think (chief designer) Nicolas Tombazis came to Ferrari from McLaren without something in his mind? The new Ferrari front end aero came from McLaren, because it was in his head.
"I'm just a bit confused. I was never a yes man and as soon as I went against the system at Ferrari, I got squeezed.
"Ferrari is unique in Italy; it's a religion. If you go against it, it's like going against the Vatican.
"I'm anxious, naturally, but I haven't done anything wrong and I believe in the legal system in Italy."
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