Mosely: Stepney & Coughlan "minor players" in scandal

[Rob W]

Quite an interesting new comment on this saga.

Mosely:

"In the end they were just very minor players. If the full story came out, they are two minor players and there are people who are not minor players. But the full story will probably never come out."

I said ages ago that little would come from pursuing these guys, purely because:

- a) it is clear that if you go after people who are backed into a corner, they come out fighting. Owing to their previous senior positions, Stepney and Coughlan likely know a lot of things about their former teams did to circumvent/side-step rules etc. Stepney previously said others at Ferrari knew about the documents and the white powder incident etc.. and alluded to there being more people involved. Perhaps they can't be sure he hasn't got proof and don't want to find out in News Of The World the hard way. A safe stalemate for him in that case.

- b) F1 really doesn't want the majority of news stories to be about the utter failing of the sporting body to really get the bottom of it all. Even the most gullible idiot can see they didn't figure it all out and really don't want the likes of Jean Todt, M Schumacher, Ross Brawn, Adrian Newey, Ron Dennis having to defend their past 'sporting' activities when this whole saga was supposed to be done and dusted.

http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954, ... 81,00.html

[xpensive]

And I thought that I was a conspiracy-theorist?
The way I understand things, a disgruntled staff-member of Ferrari (Stepney) gave certain paper-drawings to an old friend (Coughlan), thinking they could do something together with it. The friend is stupid enough to send his wife (!) to the local copy-shop with Ferrari-logo drawings to be copied over to a CD, where one of the shop-staff blows the whistle.
Me thinks the whole story is so embarassing, that everybody is just happy to see it go away.

[lkocev]

This was a topic in 2007 which I realy hated, particularly because I'm a McLaren fan and in my opinion they desserved both world championships that year. More to the point though it is pretty obvious that McLaren tried to cover up the issue, and I'm pretty sure that to do that some big names in the team (Whitmarsh, Dennis and co.) had knowledge about the situation. I think that the whole thing is a big mess, and to be honest a big load of bullshit. One thing I can never do is to forget how vigourously Ferrari pursued the issue, because it was the only way they would get the constructors' crown that year.

The fact that the FIA overturned there decision based on a few stupid and vague e-mails between Alonso and de la Rosa is complete crap because they were the ones that ended up with no form of punishment. I'm firmly of the belief that the exclusion of McLaren from the constructors' championship was more about 'the powers that be' not wanting McLaren to take a constructors' crown.

As for Stepney and Coughlan being 'minor players' I dont know about that one, and I guess we will never really know the truth, this issue is really probably more about picking wether your going to go in the red or silver corner...

[Ciro Pabón]

And I thought that I was a conspiracy-theorist?
The way I understand things, a disgruntled staff-member of Ferrari (Stepney) gave certain paper-drawings to an old friend (Coughlan), thinking they could do something together with it. The friend is stupid enough to send his wife (!) to the local copy-shop with Ferrari-logo drawings to be copied over to a CD, where one of the shop-staff blows the whistle.
Me thinks the whole story is so embarassing, that everybody is just happy to see it go away.

Well, that was the story for the first months. Then, it surfaced that the drivers and engineers knew about Ferrari's figures and there were information about pit stops and the such being exchanged, plus the hundreds of traced calls. Later, we heard directors saying they did not know what was happening inside their team.

Now, after a prudent pause, Dennis retires, something significant in any story of the affair.

I don't know how it "will go away". The only manner would be to believe that, yes, there was a conspiracy inside that prevented the director from, well, directing. Meanwhile, Alonso and De la Rosa, other minor players, drove with full knowledge, according to their own confessions. Their attitude contrasts sharply with Hamilton's, another person who set up the car without, well, setting it up. That's a curious inner conspiracy, indeed.

So, the landscape is ripe for outrageous explanations.

[xpensive]

Well, perhaps not everyone, Max seems to have a need to keep the incident alive in order to justify his fiscal punishment of McLaren.
There was an interview with John Barnard in 1996, where he describes an existing F1 car as just a snapshot in time, obsolete as soon as it hits the track. Whatever intellectual property Ferrari's race machanics have access to, I have no idea of course.

[lkocev]

I would have to agree with you xpensive, I think that they constantly refur back to this scandal as to solidify their constant punishment of McLaren. Like at the Monza race weekend in 2007 when the Carabinieri or which ever corrupt Italian authority stormed the McLaren garage. For me its little wonder who footed the bill for that charade, why else did that only happen in Italy and no where else...

I would also have to agree that alot of the data in those dosiers were useless anyhow, because the McLaren and Ferrari designs were so vastly different... and who is to say that Coughlan was not using those documents to benefit himself, rather that the team??? and I also think so that why was it so easy that one lone engineer of Ferrari leaked so much information, was it really Stepney alone?? who knows, maybe not even god does...

[Rob W]

The way I understand things, a disgruntled staff-member of Ferrari (Stepney) gave certain paper-drawings to an old friend (Coughlan), thinking they could do something together with it....

Here is the thing - assuming Stepney was the only person in Ferrari involved is where I think people have it wrong. The sheer fact that he's not been hauled over the hot coals - as would be perfectly expected in this sort of espionage - suggests to me that Ferrari (and perhaps the FIA) have reached some sort of impasse with Stepney - knowing that he knows other stuff they really don't want him to talk about. Why else would the court/legal avenues come to nothing so quickly? It makes no sense given the loss, harm that was deemed to have happened.

(Either that or the evidence they have uncovered doesn't actually pin it on him as clearly as they thought/hoped/claimed...)

I've said many times, the widely known facts of the case do not even nearly add up to the current situation we have now. There are too many things which haven't come out which could have and things which Stepney claimed he could prove about Ferrari's involvement (not that he has... yet ) or at least knowledge of it all and attempts to set him up. I mean, the white powder??

Mosely's comments - why now? Why at all? Why being basically nice to the two people they painted as demons only 16 months ago?

[Rob W]

And I thought that I was a conspiracy-theorist?
The way I understand things, a disgruntled staff-member of Ferrari (Stepney) gave certain paper-drawings to an old friend (Coughlan), thinking they could do something together with it....

Yeah.. but the facts and probability of what really happened don't paint it so simply. Stepney wanted to leave Ferrari - after being jilter for a promotion - so he sets about trying to approach another team(s) to get on-board. He's known Coulghan for years who it seems was also thinking about moving on... they meet with a team, Honda, but nothing comes of it.

Somehow during this time he sends Coulghan some info either to show he did in fact have access to it OR to give some sort of advantage to McLaren. So, now he's gone from wanting to move to another team to actually trying to scuttle his employer?

Around this time the Ferrari white powder thing happened also - or was it long after the team suspected Stepney of being up to something? If not - why.. If so, how was he still able to access info? Tracking info and keeping tabs on someone while they're inside your facilities is so easy it isn't funny. If they did, they'd have made a court case of this already.... funnily they haven't. Why not? Why did they make out he'd disappeared to Thailand when it was shown he'd booked his trip through the company travel office?

How come when Stepney threatened to tell his story of what really went on at Ferrari (about god knows what?) Ferrari seemed to be quiet in their public comments about him pretty quickly - as did the FIA. As with most of the public statements Stepney made throughout the entire saga pretty much none of them have been refuted by anyone (E.g. the white powder/overalls thing, the thailand trip bookings etc). Either he is batshit insane or he is actually right about some of this stuff.

Ferrari were very economical with details/info in this saga... almost as if they were worried something would come back to bite them. If so, what? Initial reports did claim that Coulghan had supplied Stepney with info as well (in a swap perhaps).. but that story never got any traction. What if this is what keeps Ferrari from pursuing Stepney?

McLaren also - once Coulghan was suspected how on earth did he think all of the texts he received/sent wouldn't get noticed eventually?

There is a lot we don't know and Mosely's recent comments seem almost as a public warning to McLaren and others at Ferrari who may have been involved... But why now? F1 doesn't want this story to be a topic ever again as pretty evident in their 'lets move on' actions to wrap this whole thing up in 07.

Or, is he just being a wanker and trying to tar Dennis as the ringmaster in it?

[timbo]

There was an interview with John Barnard in 1996, where he describes an existing F1 car as just a snapshot in time, obsolete as soon as it hits the track.

You'd better tell this to Honda in 2007 when SA outperformed them with their 2006 car.

[xpensive]

Kind of remember that was a shift of design-management there, when the 2006 Honda car was penned by Geoff Willis, correct?

Anyway, and this is my point, engineers are moving between teams all the time, with or without gardening-leave and/or 8 GB USB-memories. I just don't belive that Stepney as a race-mechanic was in posession of any earth-shattering design-engineering information. On the contrary, in my role as design-manager I would be outright offended if someone came to offer me a roll of paper-drawings on the rival's product, as if I didn't have a clue of what I was doing.

Unless...of course...I actually didn't have a clue.

[timbo]

I just don't belive that Stepney as a race-mechanic was in posession of any earth-shattering design-engineering information.

I think as a race mechanic he could have actually MORE valuable info for rival team, than if he'd been chief designer. Being race mechanic he knew what car could do on track, what were optimal operating window for tyres, how much fuel it consumed and so on.

[xpensive]

The bottom-line is that McLaren was fined an outrageous amount of money, for an incident which a Ferrari-employee initiated, why perhaps there's limited reason for Ferrari to make this guy look too bad, but the whole story is strange.

If my foreman would run across town with a roll of my workshop-drawings, I would sure as hell crucify him. But to accuse my competitor for looking at the documents, which I knew they had little use for in a few months time anyway, I don't know really.

[andartop]

Just a reminder, McLaren did not get punished for just "looking" at the documents, they got punished for illicitly collecting, holding and using information from Ferrari in order to obtain a sporting advantage, then publicly lying about it and trying to bury the case, then finally admitting everything when their drivers were offered immunity in order to confess the truth. Not quite the same, is it?

[xpensive]

I guess you're right, no other racing team would have done all that.

[andartop]

On the contrary, it is likely, I think, that most racing teams do exactly that, if not all. There are two differences though:
a)It does not matter at all what I think, only what proof comes to light.
b)Obviously all the rest are smart enough not to get caught. Or, when they do get caught, just shut up and suffer the consequences.