The Ferrari investigation (McLaren issues apology)

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 11:27 am

Egad ! Sinister Orientals introduced to the plot, which steadily thickens.

gkaytaz · Post by **gkaytaz** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 5:07 am

Soon we'll have everyone getting involved in this deal... I say let's forget the whole thing and think about F1 racing.

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 10:26 am

gkaytaz wrote:Soon we'll have everyone getting involved in this deal... I say let's forget the whole thing and think about F1 racing.

NO WAY !!! Motor Sport is actually getting coverage in the National Dailies thanks to this.

Methinks I have Sherlocked the answer to all this.
The actual culprit is Williams.
To divert attention from the real plot, an underpaid foundry worker at The Red Team is promised a free holiday at Blackpool if he leaves his wife's talcum powder on a part of the car.
Having photocopied the info (which brought him undone*) Our Man from Maranello passes the info to The Maccas guy in a dead letter drop. He drops some papers in the Maccas loo.
The pair then approch Honda in a brilliant double blind.
While Steppers keeps the attention focused on himself,and Honda, The Maccas guy meets with a Toyota guy, who is actually a Williams mole.
The Mole slips some info to Toyota to keep his cover, and whips the rest to Williams.
The proof of all this?
Take a look at Silverstone qualifying times.

* a guy walks into a photocopiers "somewhere in Italy" with a big red folder with Ferrari emblazoned on the cover, and says "I would like two copies of this highly secret technical data".

Then he wonders why the whole world knows about it within the week

jacfan · Post by **jacfan** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 1:07 pm

Sounds feasible to me.

And just what is Michael Schue's part in all this. He has been hanging around the garage........ and did you notice that he wouldn't even look at Ralf... very suspicious.

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 3:56 pm

jacfan wrote:Sounds feasible to me. And just what is Michael Schue's part in all this. He has been hanging around the garage........ and did you notice that he wouldn't even look at Ralf... very suspicious.

MS is blameless

jacfan · Post by **jacfan** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 5:41 pm

Julian Mayo wrote:
jacfan wrote:Sounds feasible to me. And just what is Michael Schue's part in all this. He has been hanging around the garage........ and did you notice that he wouldn't even look at Ralf... very suspicious.
MS is blameless

You just caused my brain to rupture.

Ed · Post by Ed » Sun Jul 08, 2007 7:45 pm

Stepney speaks out on his return to Italy. Here is some of what he had to say:

Stepney gave a bit of a background on how this whole thing started:

I was aware there was a problem at Ferrari last September, when Ross Brawn announced his sabbatical. The structure was changing. I still wanted to run the test and race teams and to report to Aldo Costa, the chief designer. He was the right person to report to, not Mario Almondo who was a Human Resources appointment. I thought having to report to him, and several others, was a backward step. I had previously only reported to Ross, and we had a great one-to-one relationship. He gave me a lot of support and guidance. There were six months of negotiations with Almondo and Jean Todt, who wanted me stay where I was for another year as operations manager of the test and race teams.

I was in a bad position within the new structure. My relationship with Jean Todt had really broken down. But I tried to work within the system, until things became intolerable around mid-February. It was just very difficult having to explain systems to guys who were above me. It was very frustrating. In mid-February I told Jean Todt I did not want to travel any more. I wanted to sit back and consider the future. Ferrari took that badly. 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.

On the link with Honda and with Mike Coughlan,

By the end of March the situation was unbearable. I started to look at other teams, and approached Nick Fry. I met up with Mike at the end of April – on the 28th in Port Ginesta in Spain. 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, but 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 was 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 June 1 at Heathrow.

As for the legal action against him:

On 17 May, there were legal moves against me by Ferrari. People were taken from the factory to the Carabinieri 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.

And the confidential documentation that were allegedly found in Coughlan's position:

I admit, it looks blatantly obvious, 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. Ferrari is terrified that what I have in my mind is valuable. But do you think Nicolas Tombazis came to Ferrari from McLaren without something in his mind? The new Ferrari front end aero came from McLaren, because he knew, it was in his head. I guess I know where the bodies have been buried for the last 10 years, there were a lot of controversies.

How then did Coughlan get the documents:

I have no idea. I don’t even know for sure that he has had documents. Categorically, he didn’t get them from me. If he has some, then they came from another source. 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.

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 practises 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.

He claims he is being followed:

I have been followed, and so have my fiancee Ash with my year-old daughter Sabine. There have been high-speed car chases. 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. There was tracking gear on my car.

His feelings now ?

Just a bit confused!, I was never a yes man, and as soon as I went against the system at Ferrari, I got squeezed. I started to get the blame for things, and began to feel framed. I have been accused, but have not been charged with anything; right now, there is just an investigation. But I feel like I am in the wilderness.
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.

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 11:04 pm

Maybe MS is not blameless after all!!!!!!!! So this all is a plot by Ferrari to destabilise McLaren

The fiendish Red Devils !!!
JacFan, thy rupture is healed.

gkaytaz · Post by **gkaytaz** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 4:46 am

Julian Mayo wrote:
gkaytaz wrote:Soon we'll have everyone getting involved in this deal... I say let's forget the whole thing and think about F1 racing.
NO WAY !!! Motor Sport is actually getting coverage in the National Dailies thanks to this.

Methinks I have Sherlocked the answer to all this.
The actual culprit is Williams.
To divert attention from the real plot, an underpaid foundry worker at The Red Team is promised a free holiday at Blackpool if he leaves his wife's talcum powder on a part of the car.
Having photocopied the info (which brought him undone*) Our Man from Maranello passes the info to The Maccas guy in a dead letter drop. He drops some papers in the Maccas loo.
The pair then approch Honda in a brilliant double blind.
While Steppers keeps the attention focused on himself,and Honda, The Maccas guy meets with a Toyota guy, who is actually a Williams mole.
The Mole slips some info to Toyota to keep his cover, and whips the rest to Williams.
The proof of all this?
Take a look at Silverstone qualifying times.

* a guy walks into a photocopiers "somewhere in Italy" with a big red folder with Ferrari emblazoned on the cover, and says "I would like two copies of this highly secret technical data".
Then he wonders why the whole world knows about it within the week

Meanwhile Sato was busy trying to figure out a way to stay out of trouble

gkaytaz · Post by **gkaytaz** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 4:47 am

Julian Mayo wrote:Maybe MS is not blameless after all!!!!!!!! So this all is a plot by Ferrari to destabilise McLaren The fiendish Red Devils !!!
JacFan, thy rupture is healed.

People can find a way to blame him. He's become a trademark

Dzu-Fast · Post by **Dzu-Fast** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 12:49 pm

gkaytaz wrote:
Julian Mayo wrote:Maybe MS is not blameless after all!!!!!!!! So this all is a plot by Ferrari to destabilise McLaren The fiendish Red Devils !!!
JacFan, thy rupture is healed.
People can find a way to blame him. He's become a trademark

I'll bet Stepney sabotaged Schumi's engine at Suzuka last year to extract revenge for Micheal running over him in 2000 .

gkaytaz · Post by **gkaytaz** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 3:33 pm

Dzu-Fast wrote:
gkaytaz wrote: People can find a way to blame him. He's become a trademark
I'll bet Stepney sabotaged Schumi's engine at Suzuka last year to extract revenge for Micheal running over him in 2000 .

Good point!

jacfan · Post by **jacfan** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 1:50 am

jacfan wrote:Sounds feasible to me. And just what is Michael Schue's part in all this. He has been hanging around the garage........ and did you notice that he wouldn't even look at Ralf... very suspicious.

My tongue was very firmly planted in my cheek when I wrote this. I can't see that Michael has anything to gain in this situation... unless of course Ferrari are paying a super mega amount of cash to sabotage McLaren

Though I can't imagine he would be short a buck.

jacfan · Post by **jacfan** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 1:50 am

Julian Mayo wrote:Maybe MS is not blameless after all!!!!!!!! So this all is a plot by Ferrari to destabilise McLaren The fiendish Red Devils !!!
JacFan, thy rupture is healed.

Thank you... I hate it when my brain ruptures.

jacfan · Post by **jacfan** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 1:52 am

Dzu-Fast wrote:
gkaytaz wrote:
Julian Mayo wrote:Maybe MS is not blameless after all!!!!!!!! So this all is a plot by Ferrari to destabilise McLaren The fiendish Red Devils !!!
JacFan, thy rupture is healed.
People can find a way to blame him. He's become a trademark
I'll bet Stepney sabotaged Schumi's engine at Suzuka last year to extract revenge for Micheal running over him in 2000 .

Hmmm I wonder....

Yep that could happen.