Middlemore on top of $100,000,000

The FIA verdict may have surprised some people and outraged others, whist some agree with the penalty imposed. Out of all this though has come some shocking truths that have cost Mclaren the constructors’ championship and damaged the team’s reputation badly. This will change how the remaining races will be played out, but how and what of the future for Vodafone Mclaren Mercedes?

I’ll be honest though, this is not what I had planned to do today. Instead I was going to do the first part of a piece you will see in the next few weeks (possibly), and then spend the evening with my long suffering girlfriend. Instead she’s watching her favourite TV show alone while I sit here going through a 14-page FIA document on its decision to exclude Mclaren from the 2007 Formula 1 constructors’ championship. So I'm probably going to have to buy her dinner make up for this one.

On another note of honesty, I was totally wrong on what I thought the FIA would do. I thought at the most they would be fined, well I guess I got that one right, but $100 million dollars though? Most of us will never see that kind of money let alone pay it out. Throwing the team out however surprised me as it was also a shock to Mercedes motorsports head, Norbert Haug. He also had added, "We will now fight with all our resolve in order to give a proper response on the circuit, as we last did in Monza, and to get justice before the court.” Justice before the court? That means more court appeals and this saga will drag on some more.

Trouble is although I’m not a lawyer I would be really pushed to find a way to appeal against such decision with the evidence that has been presented. The published document from the FIA does state that “the following does not constitute an exhaustive list of the elements considered nor does it purport to be a summary of all of the evidence put before the WMSC (World Motor Sport Council).” What it does summarise though is hard to believe. The new evidence that has come to light basically blows away any notion that only suspended Mclaren Chief designer Mike Coughlan knew anything about the 780 page dossier of confidential Ferrari technical information within Mclaren. What’s worse it seems that Test drive Pedro de la Rosa and Fernando Alonso had a part to play. Evidence submitted by the new drivers shows they asked for all kinds of data. de la Rosa asked Coughlan,

"Hi Mike, do you know the Red Car's Weight Distribution? It would be important for us to know so that we could try it in the simulator. Thanks in advance, Pedro.
p.s. I will be in the simulator tomorrow."

Once they had this, Alonso replied to de la Rosa,

“its weight distribution surprises me; I don't know either if it's 100% reliable, but at least it draws attention"

de la Rosa apparently decided not to use the information about the weight distribution because it was so different from the Mclaren car. As the WMSC pointed out it’s hard to believe that only the test driver decided the information was no good. If so, why on earth would you need so many aerodynamicist technicians and engineers? Unless de la Rosa is really good value for money.

Other information included brakes, wings and even how Ferrari inflates its tyres. Even if the data wasn’t used on the cars, it still gives the team a good idea of how the Ferrari works and what not to try on their cars. Helping them not to go down a “blind alley” regards set up and development of the MP4-22.

More things that I find shocking are that Stepney was passing on Ferraris race strategies and that Coughlan also used them, and the fact that his affidavit obviously missed some important points out. For instance, who he told the information to; he said he had only told CEO Martin Whitmarsh, engineering director Paddy Lowe, and managing director Jonathan Neale. And that he only told them Stepney was contacting him. He also added he had shown engineer Rob Taylor some drawings that Stepney had done of Ferrari’s brakes only because however, is a point of historic interest, as it was a very similar part to the one he designed approximately 10 years ago at FDD during their time there together. With the new evidence of the emails and text messages he sent to de la Rosa, it is hard to believe that there aren’t others in the Mclaren team who don’t know more. After all, de la Rosa pretty much helped to put the nail in Mclaren’s coffin with his email that stated

"All the information from Ferrari is very reliable. It comes from Nigel Stepney, their former chief mechanic - I don't know what post he holds now. He's the same person who told us in Australia that Kimi was stopping in lap 18. He's very friendly with Mike Coughlan, our Chief Designer, and he told him that."

On a side note, I find it’s odd that de la Rosa had to point out who Coughlan was to Alonso. I know Alonso hadn’t been at the team long (this email was sent in March), but I’d have thought he would know who his chief designer was. As for the drivers, it’s hard to know what to say about them and their parts in this. Hamilton has said he had no contact with Coughlan over this but de la Rosa and Alonso, what on earth were they thinking? Come on guys, you knew that this is against the rules and unfair play. Not only that, but the email exchange happened in March. Why did you say nothing to your team about it as it approached the first meeting with the WMSC on July 26th? Were they ever going to say anything about their conversations or did they think they could get away with it? Because who is going to find out anyway? Well, as it turns out there is an ironic twist in this as they were found out and exposed by… Mclaren boss Ron Dennis,

“Once I became aware that new evidence might exist, which I did on the morning of the Hungarian Grand Prix (August 5), I immediately phoned the FIA to keep them informed,"

Who knows how Ron must have felt possibly knowing that he had just put his own team back into the line of fire. Not only that, but how hard it must have been to know it was his drivers that had too been part of it all. From the start of this saga, although not a Mclaren fan, I have always felt that Ron Dennis has run his team on a strong moral basis. He wanted Mclaren to be the best fair and square. Whilst he lives to win, he will not win at all costs. There is a line drawn where basic moral and fairness must stand. That is why myself and a lot of other people have a hard time believing that Mclaren can be centre of this scandal. For Ron, who is the captain and whilst he believes in this, it seems that some of his lieutenants may have forgotten these values.

It didn’t help that the management didn’t take more effective action straight away when Coughlan showed managing director, Jonathan Neale, documents on the Ferrari. Neale told Coughlan to destroy what he had in his possession and then left it at that and didn’t conduct any investigation or any more action, until it was too late. As the WMSC stated, “the WMSC notes that it is very unsatisfactory that no further action was taken to investigate this matter further and make appropriate disclosures to the FIA as regulator.” Add the drivers keeping their parts in the whole episode quiet did not help Mclarens’ defence at all.

Of course thanks to Max Mosley promising that the drivers would escape any sanctions that the FIA would impose, Alonso and de la Rosa have got away from any kind of punishment and Alonso can still try to win this year drivers title. But the fact being that de la Rosa and Alonso got themselves involved in this and that Ron Dennis was not afraid to tell the FIA of his drivers’ actions, the two drivers’ seats are certainty not safe. It has already been well documented that Alonso has not settled down well this year with his new team. He has openly criticised Mclaren for all sorts of thing, ranging from favouritism towards Hamilton to not being given enough credit for what he believes he has brought to the team. There has also been other little tell tale signs that he is doing his best to rebel the whole Mclaren way. It was reported that Ron hit the roof when Alonso turned up with a goatee and Beard in Hungary, at the start of the year when He first joined there he was all clean-shaven hair cut. Gone was the long hair and facial styling and in its place was a clean-cut double world champion ready for his new challenge. Fast-forward a few months and a heated battle with his teammate and the full on beard/goatee are back, so is the long hair. There is also another little piece of Mclaren procedure Alonso has failed to follow. In a press conference after a race take a look at Lewis Hamilton, overalls for a driver that’s done 50-70 laps, (depending on the circuit of course) his uniform is clean cut and fresh. That is because he changes into a race suite that is clean, brand new, and has the sponsor logos with a sort of plastic backing sown in pushing the logo out more, giving its sponsors maximum exposure. The team did it back when Coulthard and Hakkinen drove for them. Then look at Alonso, his overalls look scruffy in comparison because he refused to change over into his new sponsor friendly overalls in USA and Hungary. It was easily noticeable as they sat in the press conference after the race. Now this is a small detail to you and I that pale into insignificance, but to Ron, who is a man who pays attention to every little detail, it annoys him. And lets be honest here, you really don’t want to annoy your boss do you? Not unless your about to move jobs and you don’t care. Alonso and de la Rosa may find that it has to depending on what Ron decides to do with them. This whole affair has been a mess and an embarrassment for Mclaren and heads may have to roll. Personally I think that Alonso and de la Rosa should have had their super licences revoked, they have played a part in this and unlike Coughlan who looks like he will be suspended from international motorsports (and rightly so) that the two drivers will be unpunished for their part is honestly a joke.

Other evidence is the tracking of SMS phone calls and emails sent between Coughlan and Stepney. At first it was thought only a few e-mails were sent between the two and Coughlan was keen to point out that he had not spoke to Stepney for a while. The contact he had with Stepney after the 1st of March was only 3 meetings face to face and a few emails. The report says that a total of 288 SMS and 35 telephone calls between 11th march and the 14th of April alone. Moreover, there was a considerable increase in the number of contacts between the two during testing and over race weekends. This and the fact that Coughlan shared information with the Mclaren drivers does not support the original claim from Mclaren that Coughlan had the data to take to another team, which was rumoured to be Honda. In fact Coughlan states that he met up with Stepney when he was speaking to Honda principle, Nick Fry, out of curiosity and what Fry had to say about himself joining the Honda at a later date.

So the WMSC presented with the evidence that showed more than Coughlan knew about the Ferrari documents, and that as the WMSC themselves have said it is unknown how much an advantage it gave the Mclaren team. But there is no doubt that Coughlan had more input into the car than first thought, and the fact he knew about how the Ferrari worked would benefit him with what to try out on the Mclaren cars. The WMSC had enough evidence to throw Mclaren out. A sad way to end the constructor title fight.

A lot of people are looking for someone to blame. Some blame Ferrari saying that they should have kept a closer eye on Stepney, and that Ferrari too should be found in breech of breaking Article 151c and bringing the sport into disrepute. I do not. Ferrari would have never wanted their technical data farmed out to a rival team, and despite what some people may think that Ferrari do not care how they win as long as they do win is unfair. Yes, there is no doubt that Ferrari does push the boundaries when it comes to how they go about winning. Austria 2002 being a case example (When Barrichello was ordered to surrender victory to Schumacher just a few 100 yards from the finishing line) But they would not have wanted this to go to court. Whilst Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has said he will not feel bad if Ferrari win the title because of what happens in the court, he has said that what’s happening is not good for the sport. Trying to blame Ferrari for not watching Stepney closely is like saying to someone that got beat up “well you shouldn’t have left the house” Ferrari have been the victim in this whether you like it or not. Now I’m not being negative here, I just feel personally that people will always try and make Ferrari out to be a villain no matter what. Here in the UK especially. Imagine for instance if the rolls were reversed the uproar that would happen. Here the papers have generally glossed over the issue printing a few details and not going too deep into the story. If it was Ferrari that had Mclaren confidential data then boy would you know about it “Ferrari try to cheat Lewis out of title” Would probably be the headline.

If you do want someone to blame then here is a list for you in no order what-so-ever the fault has to be shared of this whole horrible mess has been, all the teams, the big money, greed, Max Mosley the FIA, technology, Bernie Ecclestone, politics and the sponsors. Why? Each and everyone have helped to shape the sport into what it is today. The truth of the matter is that there are such large sums of money involved so much paranoia, and that the sport has almost lost touch with what it is there for. Us, the fans! We’ve seen it before. In your own back garden or should we say brick yard 2005 Indy USGP. It was a sorry pathetic mess to see a 6 car race as the other 12 pulled into the pits, because the powers that be couldn’t settle on a solution and tried to use the situation for there own gain. After you look at it like this you have to wonder why? Why bother with F1 at all? Very simply because for an hour on Saturday and an hour and a half on Sunday afternoon F1 becomes what it’s supposed to be, a sport. Where drivers makes names for themselves by trying to win races and titles, some in there rookie season, some to win another title and make history, some to win it after seasons of missing out, and some to win it because no one thought they could. To see drivers pull off overtaking moves that you didn’t think possible, to see wet weather masters glide round the track making others look ordinary, for those heart stopping moments and the joy of seeing your favour driver or team beat everyone else. That’s why. And that’s why I will continue to follow this sport.

Back to the politics, however, and now Ron Dennis has a bigger battle to win. Not one for titles or for appeals but one for rebuilding Mclaren and leaving this saga behind. I’m sure he will have to make some hard decisions on what to do with staff and what goes on within his team, but I for one do not doubt Ron Dennis’s integrity at all and whilst. Yes his team has been found guilty, the best thing they can do now is fight back on the track and show they are true honest winners.

Finally I think it is only fair to bring up the man who started all this, Nigel Stepney. This was the man who on his own back decided to give the data to Coughlan that sparked the whole chain of events. Now Stepney claims he is totally innocent and that he is being made a scapegoat by Ferrari. But with Coughlan from Mclaren confirming that he got all his information from the now ex Ferrari man. Now we must wait to see what Stepney has to say about this. Because for all Stepney’s claims of being singled out and that he “knows where bodies are buried” Well now its time to tell us, Stepney, because if you care about F1 you will help to end this mess you started.