FIA is holding a witch-hunt against McLaren - Jackie Stewart

Sir Jackie Stewart has declared to the 'BBC' that the world motorsport bosses are biased towards Ferrari in the espionage case against McLaren. According to Stewart, the FIA is holding a 'witch-hunt' against Ron Dennis and his team.

Jackie Stewart said to the BBC: "It seems some of the most powerful people in F1 are more aligned to Ferrari than anybody else. The FIA have historically been very close to Ferrari, closer to them than anyone else. There are more Ferrari representatives on the World Council than anybody else."

On Thursday, McLaren will once again face a World Motor Sport Council hearing. Ferrari accuses McLaren of benefiting from the confidential documents that Nigel Stepney gave to Mike Coughlan. During the first hearing, the WMSC decided that Coughlan did receive the confidential documents, but that McLaren did not use any of it on their car. After this hearing, Max Mosley decided to take the matter to the Court of Appeal in London after a complaint from Ferrari. But as the FIA received new evidence, there will be a second WMSC hearing in Paris.

Stewart said: "I'm not saying that there hasn't been wrongdoing. But to start witch-hunting and trying to implicate a team principal, Ron Dennis, to a level that is currently going on, I think is negative to the sport."