Stepney talks about spy scandal

During his first televised interview on 'Sky Sports' yesterday, Nigel Stepney, who was involved in the espionage scandal that hit F1 last season, claims that he did not intend McLaren to benefit from the contact made with Chief Designer of the Woking-based outfit, Mike Coughlan.

Nigel Stepney said during the interview: "There is a lot being said, but I think there is a lot underneath that hasn't been said that should have been. It's been dramatised for various other reasons, which we will have to go into at a later date.

"Some stuff has been done politically. Some stuff should have been brought out probably in a different way. There's a lot of politics at McLaren with the drivers there (referring to Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton). I think at the end of this year, or at the end of 2007, I was looking to get out of Ferrari anyway, whether it was going to be in Formula One I wasn't quite sure."

Stepney still claims that he and Mike Coughlan searched contact to secure a senior position at Honda. Stepney once again repeats that he, Coughlan and Nick Fry, Team Principal of Honda, had a meeting last summer to talk about this topic.

It's obvious that Stepney wanted to leave Ferrari as he was overlooked for the position of Ross Brawn who had left the team.

"I don't feel responsible in anyway at all for what happened at McLaren. My ideas were to make contact with somebody, but not to benefit. It was to see what I could do somewhere else with a group of people.

"Obviously it got a bit sensitive and somebody used information more than I actually thought it was, or more than it should have been. It should never have been used to that extreme."

Although he still faces a civil court case at Italy and the threat of a ban, preventing him to work in Formula One for an extended period, Stepney is not worried at all. "I think I've got a lot of other more interesting opportunities and going back into the grass roots of motor racing," he said.