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Why did Ferrari take so long to notify the police? Why only after the championship seemed to be well and truly in the hands of Hamilton and therefore McLaren?
What happens to Stepney and Coughlan? Surely if there was a 780 page Ferrari dossier missing then the team would have been asking questions.
If the information was gleaned way back in March then the relevence today would have to be considered questionable at the least.
As for the emails etc between drivers... well let's all be honest here... surely we are not naive enough to think that the drivers and teams would try and glean as much info about the opposition as possible. I don't believe for one moment that any team is completely clean as far as that goes.
I am with Julian on this one. I think that the powers that be are making a complete *&^^*& up of the whole thing and wrecking a great sport.

I have to agree with Max Mosley on this one - if anything the penalty is too mild and doesnt really punish MCLAREN accordingly.

He said in the interview with RTL today that it was a decision made in favour of the sport rather than complete justice - which would have stripped the drivers points also.

I would like to repeat it is highly sporting that FERRARI accept the WMSC decision even though MCLAREN will most definitely reap the awards for the WDC this year. 99% of the public is only aware of the WDC car rather than the WCC!

Maybe it would have been better to cut the drivers points by 20 each and the constructors points accordingly. Of course this has been a fantastic Championship so far and principally I wouldnt want a court to decide it. I think any of the top 4 would be a great champion and LEWIS was most impressive in total which would make it bitter.

But anyone starting to blame FERRARI now is talking through his ar5e...Actually Im pretty sure if it had been any other opponent the drivers points would have been stripped but WMSC members preferred not to decide the WDC at court.

Looking for a great Spa GP, with still some hope for rain...

Why did Schuey stop going to the races? Mission completed?

The McLaren team released the following quote by Ron Dennis:

After a frank and open discussion with Max Mosley this afternoon, we reached full agreement on the relevant content and context of the discussions that took place on the Sunday of the Hungarian Grand Prix. Our subsequent recollections of these, which I repeated to the World Motor Sport Council on Thursday, will be contained in the transcript to be made available to the media next week.”

“It has been a difficult period in the history of McLaren but we have tried hard to co-operate with the FIA which has been committed to a transparent and thorough process.”

“In the interests of Formula 1, our Partners and our team, I am now considering how to achieve closure on this matter. Once I have formed my own opinion I will make a recommendation to my shareholders who will ultimately decide with me whether to appeal."

The FIA then responded with the following statement:

Following various media reports over the weekend FIA President Max Mosley has responded as follows:

“Our investigation had nothing to do with questions of personality and everything to do with sporting fairness. The interests of Formula One have not been helped by comments in the press from would-be experts who questioned the motives of the investigation without waiting for the evidence. We will adopt a similar approach to any such matters which are brought to our attention in the future.

“One hundred million dollars is a large sum of money but in such a serious case any fine has to be large enough to deter similar behaviour in the future whilst remaining proportionate to the resources of the team.

“Just over half the money from this fine will go to the competing Formula One teams. Each competing team will move up one place with McLaren now taking 11th position in this year's Championship.

“The World Motor Sport Council will be invited to distribute the remainder to the FIA's national sporting authorities world-wide for them to spend on helping young drivers to progress in circuit racing and rallies. This will be the first time the FIA has had such a budget available.

“The FIA is very disappointed that Fernando Alonso and Pedro De La Rosa have been criticised in the press. They had no choice but to make available the information in their possession. It is up to every team to ensure that the rules of sporting fairness are respected. No driver should be put in the position in which Fernando and Pedro found themselves.

“For the avoidance of doubt, Ron Dennis told me on the Sunday of the Hungarian Grand Prix that notwithstanding an exchange with Fernando Alonso there was no information held by anyone within the McLaren team which might cast doubt on the World Motor Sport Council decision of 26th July. He confirmed to me this afternoon that he did indeed say this and I entirely accept that he believed it to be true at that time.”

Snowy wrote:What I want to know is what penalty is going to be imposed on Ferrari for intercepting and reading McLaren's Emails!

???? From what I can gather, the new evidence was through an FIA investigation and Sweet FA blowing the whistle! (maybe he desperately wants out and saw this as an opportunity?)

This business is all bullshyze!!!

Every team tries to learn what the other team is doing. This information shows up after Team McLaren has a stranglehold on the championship. It would be different if the McLaren performed like, say, Jenson Button's Honda and then miraculously became unbeatable. My question is this: if this information is the secret to Ferraris success, then why isn't Ferrari signicantly better considering the extra time they have had to develop the technology? The McLaren engineers would first have to figure out what and why Ferrari was doing certain things before they can capitalize on them! I guess Ferrari's engineers and mechanics aren't as good as McLaren's.

This whole mess is malarky just like the New England Patriots cheating scandal. All teams try to learn their opponents special signals. It is a clear breach of the rules, but it seems to be a part of most all professional sports. The sanctioning body should take whatever punitive action against the team AND the team principals and that's all unless they can prove it was Fernando Alonzo and Pedro delaaRosa who broke into Ferrari's headquarters Ocean's 11 style and stole the info themselves! This email nonsense is crap.

IMHO, Alonso and Hamilton are the two best driver's out there. Both Raikkonen and Massa are hella-fast, but Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica may actually be better overall.

RIP Colin McRae

The rolling road exploding in the wind tunnel (due to lack of maintenance, buy a Ferrari? ) was a set-back Ferrari is just now starting to overcome.

......and if Coughlin had used the company copy machine instead of Kinkos (or whatever its called in the UK) then no one would have known that McLarren had the info in the first place!

And all those Italian Company pages were in english....................

RE30B#16 wrote:This business is all bullshyze!!!

Every team tries to learn what the other team is doing. This information shows up after Team McLaren has a stranglehold on the championship. It would be different if the McLaren performed like, say, Jenson Button's Honda and then miraculously became unbeatable. My question is this: if this information is the secret to Ferraris success, then why isn't Ferrari signicantly better considering the extra time they have had to develop the technology? The McLaren engineers would first have to figure out what and why Ferrari was doing certain things before they can capitalize on them! I guess Ferrari's engineers and mechanics aren't as good as McLaren's.

This whole mess is malarky just like the New England Patriots cheating scandal. All teams try to learn their opponents special signals. It is a clear breach of the rules, but it seems to be a part of most all professional sports. The sanctioning body should take whatever punitive action against the team AND the team principals and that's all unless they can prove it was Fernando Alonzo and Pedro delaaRosa who broke into Ferrari's headquarters Ocean's 11 style and stole the info themselves! This email nonsense is crap.

IMHO, Alonso and Hamilton are the two best driver's out there. Both Raikkonen and Massa are hella-fast, but Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica may actually be better overall.

RIP Colin McRae

My point exactly!!!!
and RIP Colin McRae.

Have to say I'm with Ed & Jay Vee on this one.

If what Ron says is true, and you have to keep in mind that whatever he has released in writing has been cleared by McLaren's legal boys, that no one in the whole team but the recipient of the Ferarri data even knew it existed, then it makes no sense to punish anyone but the receiver of stolen property. end of story. On the other hand, if ANYONE else knew, that means EVERYONE else knew.

We're not talking about whether or not this can be proved ; we're talking about one of the greatest vortexes of information and rumor in the civilized world here! And if everyone knew, the onus has to be on them to DEMONSTRATE how they gained no competitive advantage from it; NOT on the FIAA to demonstrate that they did. end of story.

Mad Max says this is for the good of the sport. Bernie E. chuckles on his way to the bank.

And one of the best seasons in F1 in a VERY LONG TIME has now been trashed. For what!

Sadly yours, Jim Watt

Unfortunately this is a very naive view. The evidence as in the published transcript is more than clear.

FIA had but no choice to sanction the team. As said before the sanctions are very mild and more than likely FERRARI cant be really satisfied as the WDC will remain with cheating MCLAREN. I would bet they dont want any titles from the green table but more than this nobody appreciates being robbed of his property, be it intellectual.

Now I think its best to forget about the whole issue and focus on the exciting title fight...

...and the driver market. Most likely scenario is FERNANDO to RENAULT, NICO to MCLAREN, TIMO to TOYOTA, RALF to WILLIAMS, what next?

Ralf to DMT.

DMT? Would you enlighten us, Julian? -