McLaren were cleared on Thursday by Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, of any wrongdoing in the espionage affair that has engulfed the sport this season.
An extraordinary hearing of the 25-strong World Motor Sports Council (WMSC), the sport’s highest body, ruled that there was no evidence the British team had benefited from the confidential Ferrari documents that were found in the possession of their chief designer.
A relieved McLaren team boss Ron Dennis said on leaving the hearing at the FIA headquarters: ”The punishment fits the crime.”
If guilty McLaren, whose driver Lewis Hamilton leads the drivers’ championship from teammate Fernando Alonso, had faced having points deducted.
In clearing McLaren, the FIA added a warning that if in the future McLaren were found to have used the information passed to Mike Coughlan, their suspended designer, by a disaffected Ferrari employee then they risked being kicked out of the 2007 and 2008 season.
An FIA statement said: ”The WMSC was satisfied that McLaren was in possession of confidential Ferrari information and is therefore in breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code.
”However, there is insufficient evidence that this information was used in such a way to interfere improperly with the FIA F1 championship.
”We therefore impose no penalty.”
The statement added: ”But if it’s found in the future that the Ferrari information has been used to the detriment of the championship, we reserve the right to invite McLaren back in front of the WMSC where it will face the possibility of exclusion from the 2007 champion, and also the 2008 championship.”
The FIA said it would be summoning the two men at the centre of the affair, Ferrari’s Nigel Stepney and Coughlan, to their Paris headquarters ”to show reason why they should not be banned from international motorsport for a lengthy period”.
The affair erupted after Coughlan was caught in possession of a 780-page Ferrari technical dossier following a search of his home by court-appointed officials.
Dennis had always strenuously denied that anyone at McLaren other than Coughlan had set eyes on the dossier.
Hamilton heads the drivers’ standings on 70 points, two clear of world champion Alonso, with Ferrari duo Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen in third and fourth with 59 and 52.
McLaren also top the constructor standings, with 138 points, 27 clear of Ferrari.
Ex-Ferrari employee Stepney, who is the subject of an Italian police investigation, meanwhile, says he’s ready to name names in a bid to prove his innocence and unveil those who he believes are really behind the scandal. — Sapa-AFP