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South Africa: Will the Controversy Never End?
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
15 November 2007
Posted to the web 15 November 2007
Mark Smyth
Johannesburg
Flamboyant Renault team boss Flavio Briatore will have to answer questions regarding possible McLaren design information in the team's possession.
After the Stepneygate scandal, Renault is now set to be hauled over the coals for allegedly stealing from McLaren, writes MARK SMYTH
TODAY it seems as though the Barings bank scandal of the 1980s was simply a minor accounting oversight compared with the dramas that seem to unfold regularly in the world of Formula One. Speculation and accusations are rife and understandably so given recent events.
Ferrari engineers working at Toyota were the first to be accused of industrial espionage, but that case was quickly sidestepped and pushed under the carpet, a fact that adds to many insiders' argument that there is a bias both on the track and off it towards the Maranello team. In the UK's Daily Telegraph last Friday, former champion Damon Hill was scathing of the "political bias" that he claims exists in the pinnacle of motor sport, particularly when it came to the subsequent McLaren spy saga.
"There was an uncomfortable feeling that there was something more to the McLaren outcome than the issue being investigated," he told the paper.
"The way that justice was meted out raised some questions about the way the FIA handles these breaches. If breaches occur then those things should be investigated and dealt with sensibly and appropriately," he said.
While Hill is renowned for being outspoken on many issues, particularly when he thinks any British team or driver has been hard done by, he raises a very good point and one which potentially could see half the F1 grid disappear if the FIA upholds its own rules.
On December 6 the ING Renault F1 team will be hauled before the World Motor Sport Council to answer allegations that it had proprietary information from another team in its possession. The irony is that the team the information came from is McLaren..
Renault boss Flavio Briatore is typically scathing on the whole matter accusing McLaren team boss Ron Dennis of "throwing stones everywhere". A press release issued by the team said: "On September 6 2007 it came to our attention that an engineer (Phil Mackereth) who joined the team from McLaren in September 2006 had brought with him some information that was considered to be proprietary to McLaren."
Does that statement sound familiar, think back to the numerous similar paragraphs from McLaren in defence of its employees indiscretions. However unlike in that case, it would appear that Renault management took very swift action to ensure it did not end up on the wrong side of the FIA. The disks that Mackareth brought to the team and subsequently copied to the server were impounded and handed to solicitors for delivery back to McLaren, probably with a note saying: "Sorry Ron, this fell off the back of a lorry in the high street."
The data was wiped from the server and both McLaren and the FIA were informed of all events, while Mackereth, not surprisingly, was suspended.
An internal formal investigation revealed that he had indeed shown a number of drawings of McLaren parts to engineers within the Renault team, most notably those of the internal layout of the fuel tank, the basic layout of the gear clusters, a tuned mass damper and a suspension damper.
Statements from the engineers indicate that none of these drawings were used to influence the design of the team's 2007 car, however therein lies one of the major problems.
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It was never categorically proven that McLaren did in fact use any of the Ferrari information in design or components of its car this year. The punishment was handed down based on the fact that the team had the material and could potentially have used it. Now as Hill rightly points out, this must be the precedent and therefore Renault must expect a similar penalty if the FIA views the events using the same criteria.
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