McLaren Banned!

[TJ347]

McLaren Mercedes has been banned from the 2007 and 2008 Constructors Championship, and fined $100 million USD by the World Motor Sports Council, bringing a surprising and totally upsetting conclusion to the "Stepneygate" affair. Although it cannot be prove that McLaren used stolen data on the 2008 car fielded by second place Ferrari, the council (comprised of a number of Ferrari affiliated individuals, I might add) decided this penalty was just, despite the fact that Ferrari's numerous past indiscretions have long gone unpunished in any way, making the rumors of impartiality already swirling gain strength with each passing hour.

While Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton will keep their points (rookie Hamilton currently leads the Drivers Championship by three points, with teammate and two time champion Alonso right behind him), I can't see where the team itself has any incentive now to go racing at all, and I will cease watching Formula One until this matter is dealt with appropriately (or if not, I will just cease watching period). This is a sad day for fans of Formula One, even the tifosi, who with their blinders on probably won't ever notice.

Why is it that sports today have so little sport left in them?

[Oli]

While I'm not a huge Ferrari fan, I think the punishment fit the crime.

The penalty follows McLaren’s admission that the team was in breach of the International Sporting Code through their possession of confidential technical data belonging to rivals Ferrari

It wasn't that they had the data, they were caught with the data, and they admitted they had it.

The WMSC statement...

"The WMSC has stripped Vodafone McLaren Mercedes of all constructors' points in the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship and the team can score no point for the remainder of the season *.

"Furthermore, the team will pay a fine equal to 100 million dollar, less the FOM income lost as a result of the points deduction.

"However, due to the exceptional circumstances in which the FIA gave the team's drivers an immunity in return for providing evidence, there is no penalty in regards to drivers' points **.

"The WMSC will receive a full technical report on the 2008 McLaren car and will take a decision at its December 2007 meeting as to what sanction, if any, will be imposed on the team for the 2008 season."

The full reasons for this decision will be issued on the 14th September 2007.

* Points gained by other teams so far this season will not be affected.

** No McLaren representative will be allowed on the podium should a McLaren driver win in any of the remaining races of the 2007 season.

Ron Dennis' reply...

"The most important thing is that we will be going motor racing this weekend, the rest of the season and every season. This means that our drivers can continue to compete for the World Championship. However having been at the hearing today I do not accept that we deserved to be penalised in this way.

"Today's evidence given to the FIA by our drivers, engineers and staff clearly demonstrated that we did not use any leaked information to gain a competitive advantage.

"Much has been made in the press and at the hearing today of emails and text messages to and from our drivers. The World Motorsport Council received statements from Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Pedro de la Rosa stating categorically that no Ferrari information had been used by McLaren and that they had not passed any confidential data to the team.

"The entire engineering team in excess of 140 people provided statements to the FIA affirming that they had never received or used the Ferrari information.

"We have never denied that the information from Ferrari was in the personal possession of one of our employees at his home. The issue is: was this information used by McLaren? This is not the case and has not been proven today.

"We are also continually asked if McLaren didn't use the information, what was the reason for Stepney and Coughlan collecting all this data about Ferrari? We can only speculate as neither Coughlan nor Stepney gave evidence at today's hearing, but we do know that they were both seeking employment with other teams, as already confirmed by both Honda and Toyota.

"There will be no issue for the 2008 season as we have not at any stage used any intellectual property of any other team.

"We have got the best drivers and the best car and we intend to win the World Championship."

[Oli]

The complete FIA report.

http://www.fia.com/resources/documen...ion_130907.pdf

Sections 3 & 4 document that McLaren wasn't truthfull in the original hearing. They used the data in their testing.