Well, there are a lot of
smileys flying around, and references to everything being funny, hilarious even. How come I get the feeling that exactly the opposite is true especially if that point has to be expressed something like ten times in the same thread? Exhortations for calm are also a little less than convincing, both for the “exhorter” and the “exhortées”, if followed up by referring to team managers as crybabies and portraying fans (by whatever description) of certain teams as irrationally emotional and incapable of displaying reason in a conversation.
I can only draw on my experience in saying that I’ve seen self-professed fans of every team display every kind of behaviour, especially on messageboards – whether I’ve aspired to be impartial or not. It is perhaps better to refrain from generalisations, especially so on a specialized website such as this. My own experiences of personal dealings with true tifosi are that they have a certain perspective, yes, but at the same time I've found them courteous and dignified in defeat towards those that fly different colours or are largely “nondenominational”. By this I’m certainly not implying I condone everything the team has done in its history – merely that they’ve both benefitted and suffered from being in a focal point of F1.
The application of “respondeat superior” doctrines, i.e. employer’s liability for employees’ misdeeds is of course as a principle contingent on towards whom the misdeed is directed to. A misdeed is, by definition, perpetrated against the interests of someone or something, thus pRo’s “dilemma” lacks an absolutely necessary component - the object of the misdeed – and ends up as circular reasoning. In short, if the misdeed is directed towards the employee’s own employer, the employer’s liability is negated by the company’s status as the victim of the misdeed. If, in turn, the employee’s misdeed is directed towards anyone else in a manner that relates to his job, the employer bears responsibility.
Furthermore, Ferrari seemed to act as soon as they got wind of something untoward going on within their company, certainly before they even knew what it was about, exactly. Meanwhile, if Todt’s public record (“A reaction in the cold light of day") is correct, and he’d be a fool if it wasn’t for he’d be held accountable for it before he could say "affidavit", McLaren’s leadership sat on their hands for months on end in the detailed knowledge that their employee was receiving information of value that didn’t belong to him personally, let alone their team.
I certainly haven’t seen McLaren offer a rationale for doing so - if Stepney indeed initiated the contact the team’s loyalty to their head designer Coughlan wouldn’t have been in any kind of a conflict with the team’s general interest in not contradicting “respondeat superior” rules. They could’ve immediately divulged the nature and content of the contact to their own benefit and to the detriment of Ferrari in having to deal with a very senior rogue employee and having the team to revise their floor design. At the same time, ironically, it would've served to improve trust between the teams.
Of course, this is just how things appear to stand with my own limited exposure to media right now. And of course Ferrari and McLaren haven’t been to a court of law with this. The WMSC held a hearing which certainly didn’t adhere to general common law practices as far as I can understand. The procedure was its own. Good thing this messageboard isn’t a court of law either, as I hardly think allowing public perceptions, let alone allowing prior cases that have involved the protagonists of the current proceedings but aren’t precedents, to affect the case. That would hardly be according to the best judicial traditions. And if enforcement has faltered earlier, it is never too soon to correct that no matter who is involved, otherwise acrimony and controversy will continue. F1 is a long-lived form of motorsport and it’s worth remembering that while the teams remain, generations change.
My perception is still that McLaren is, all in all, a great team with all its current personalities and is a force to contend with. I certainly do want them to stay in contention by their sporting prowess alone. But I think I’m not alone in worrying about what, exactly, has happened and what effect it might still have on everything, on a wider context too. Former McLaren racer John Watson expressed some dismay recently, while others have been upbeat about all this. Perhaps it’s worth noting that it’s a tricky exercise to be pro something without being con something else ... but not impossible!
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Welll he is "one of those thickheads"... 
