The infamous 'spy gate' that began during the 2007 season is now one step closer to being closed for good, with a court hearing in Modena, Italy, dropping charges against the McLaren employees. The employees involved being McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan and senior employees Paddy Lowe, Jonathan Neale and Rob Taylor.
Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
I agree that the gearbox fine is suspicious, Mclaren should not have been allowed to race in Hungary with a car which may have been unsafe so really a fine is letting them off lightly, and it will be little more than pocket money to Ron.
I think we're all getting caught up in some journalistic net here, only going on (conflicting) reports from various sources. I doubt Alonso has anything to do with this, I doubt any other driver is involved, this new evidence concerns me though because its looking more and more likely that Ferrari might have some solid evidence to prove Mclaren cheated.
The bottom line is that Mclaren can be found guilty or innocent;
If found guilty the judges can either descide a draconian punishment, and risk F1 losing a huge audience with outraged spectators, something F1 can survive but could definetly do without. The other option is they let the team off lightly, slap on the wrist, large fine and some manufacturer points deducted, but not enough to make them lose their lead to Ferrari, or risk uproar again.
If found innocent Ferrari will doubtless find more evidence to come back with and the whole trial begins again till Mclaren are found guilty.
Murphy's 9th Law of Technology:
Tell a man there are 300 million stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch to be sure.
Since the new evidence being used in this coming hearing has been kept so quiet (so far) I suspect Ferrari have now learned some lessons from last time and want to keep their smoking gun for the hearing itself instead of leaking stories like a sieve as they normally do.
I find it hard to accept some of the stuff I'm hearing about this. Last night alone I heard something, sure to come out shortly, which comes from the scientology theory-of-life level of credibility.
On that note Stepney reiterates his innocence over the plans getting into Coulghan's hands. They must have no strong evidence on him at all otherwise he would have been advised long ago by his lawyer to keep his mouth shut.
Livio Orichio in Brazil says an email from PDLR to FA instructing on how to improve car setup for tyres was found. It is dated march and mentions Stepney/Coughlan as source of information.
Livio has been hinting this situation for a couple of days now. Sounds prophetic so far.
gr8!
now the drivers are involved!
Honestly guys, the only one I feel sorry for is Hamilton... The guy is just an amazing driver, and he deserves to win this champ... Im sure he has nothing to do with all this bs....
I think he's jus the wrong man, in the wrong team, at the wrong time
[quote="allan"]gr8!
now the drivers are involved!
Honestly guys, the only one I feel sorry for is Hamilton... The guy is just an amazing driver, and he deserves to win this champ... Im sure he has nothing to do with all this bs....
I think he's jus the wrong man, in the wrong team, at the wrong time [/quote]
monkeyboy1976 wrote:Let's just hope that Lewis is not involved....
Involved in what? If a Ferrari team member tells something to Mclaren team member what is Mclaren team member supposed to do? Ignore what he knows and don't use it? It is not Mike's or De la Rosa's or Alonso's or Hamilton's fault that a member of Ferrari team told them something or gave them something. They didn't spy on Ferrari. Spying is premeditated operation. Person who accidentally learns a secret is not a spy but just a person who accidentally learned a secret.