Here is the full
verdict released by the WMSC, and McLaren have released a press statement here:“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.”
I have to voice my opinion anyway: It’s frustrating to hear and talk about it without even knowing what the
evidence was against McLaren. I do not care of the massive fine, I want to know the evidence. Being a worldwide business F1 is mainly about money, and this fine proves the blatant truth about F1 – Nevermind the teams, drivers or the fans, just get the money.
McLaren can afford
it, although it sounds like a big fine a team like McLaren can afford it, having billionare investors and so on, so it’s not
the end of the world. It’s the constructors championship exclusion that’s the
problem, while the drivers remain untouched in all this. It makes no
sense, and this also blatantly shows how the sport is concerned about
the sport’s revenue, and not it’s image. How is there ANY justice done if
apparantly (we’re assuming the team have cheated and therefore used information illegally) an illegal car wins the 2007 WDC? Is this the justice Ferrari
kept blabbing on about? Is this the truth? No, it’s a flipping joke and
it’s a mockery.
Also, if this punishment is about McLaren being irresponsible for it’s employee’s
action, then why the hell aren’t Ferrari being looked at? After all, it
was their employee who played with such important information, it was Ferraris’ responsibility over their employee’s huge error, yet Ferrari
don’t get even told off? And here we have McLaren being persecuted because their employee used Ferrari information, eventhough the team themselves had not?
Stepney is the one who put Ferrari in danger, not Coughlan because McLaren had no idea of what was going on! Stepney is in trouble already yes, but it takes two to tango here. How can McLaren be persecuted being responsible over Coughlan while Ferrari are not with Stepney? Everyone is saying it’s because McLaren have benefited, but how? How have McLaren benefited? They know information about Ferrari, so do most teams know things about the others! This is a matter of whether they have cheated in regards to the performance of their cars, isn’t it? And it has NOT been proved today, as the McLaren statement has said.
It is not in the minds of McLaren to beat Ferrari or any other rival with their own weapon, it’s not the first time that McLaren have contended Ferrari for the world championship in F1. People
are still getting confused over the simple fact that it was a McLaren
employee, not the team, who held Ferrari information. And even if more
team members knew some useful information, that doesn’t mean they have
cheated. There’s a difference between having knowledge and putting it
into action. Staff from teams come and go, some take information from
one team to another all the time. I wonder what the evidence is against
McLaren.
UPDATE – FIA reveals evidence that led to penalty
Well, as McLaren’s statement said, the evidence against them was mainly email traffic between Pedro de La Ros and Fernando Alonso, cheeky scums. But nothing proved that it helped the team/car gain a competitive advantage. Leave your thoughts and comments below! And I hope you find the poster funny (especially the ‘starring… Kimi Raikkonen as "the guy in the gorilla suit" hahahaha!)
FUCK ISRAEL 
I feel your pain, Saima but hey – what can I say – we live in a cynical world…. While it is ethically & morally wrong to indulge in cheating, the human nature is susceptible to it – the only variables are the stakes & the way in which it is done…… The great Michael Schumacher crashed into Damon Hill to win his first championship…… In one of his later races, Schumacher got a drive through penalty while he was leading, he took it only on the last lap & won the race, thus becoming the only driver to have ever won an F1 race from the pit lane!!!!! This was ethically & morally wrong, but that didn’t stop him……. Nothing against Schumi but the point is that these weren’t the first or the last times when some-one’s “cheated” – I’m sure all F1 teams indulge in it but it’s just McLaren’s bad luck that they got caught…… Whatever the evidence, the WMSC simply had to dish out a punishment… I’m actually glad that McLaren hasn’t been disqualified from competing next year…… To me, the only thing that matters is whether Kimi wins the championships or not – I care nothing for anything or anyone else…….. For many folks, F1 = Schumi but for me F1 = Kimi!!!!!!!
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Well I think this, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/6995240.stm , puts Ron Dennis’ creditability at risk when he was so strongly saying that no one in the team knew of this Ferrari information. It had been going on for months through many people in the Mclaren team. Good that they have had their points taken away they deserve it.
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The team had been betrayed.
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I wish I never had to say this – but I think the team asked for it & what goes around, comes around. They hired Alonso when he approached them even though they already had someone like Kimi. That alone could’ve made Kimi decide to leave Mclaren – I felt Kimi was betrayed at the time. Now, Alonso is one of the reasons for the current situation – & on top of that, he’s probably going to leave Mclaren at the end of this year/season. Fortunately, Kimi seems happier at Ferrari now, while Mclaren are none the better – they still haven’t won the constuctor’s championship (pending appeal) & probably won’t have Alonso next year – the only saving grace for them is Lewis Hamilton.
From the time I first started following F1, Mclaren was my favourite team & Mika Hakkinen – my favourite driver. If Mika had joined another team, Mclaren would’ve continued to be my favourite team. But for Kimi……… 😦
This the first time since I’ve started following F1 that I don’t have a favourite team. I’ve never cared much for Ferrari. It’s always going to be KIMI – always!!!!!! & I’m actually looking forward for him to win the drivers championships THIS year/season!!!!!!!!!!!
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I understand. But Kimi left McLaren, it wasn’t the other way round. McLaren had some belief that Kimi was still available to them towards the end of 2005 and through early 2006, but with doubts they hired Alonso – it was Alonso who approached McLaren behind the podium after he won his 1st championship at Brazil in 2005, obviously Pedro couldn’t have the race drive for 2007, so originally McLaren hoped it would have been Kimi and Alonso as teammates.McLaren as a team had been betrayed by Coughlan and Pedro and Alonso. Alonso went around claiming he brought half a second improvement to the team through his intelligence when really it was information he was getting from Pedro and Coughlan. Alonso is even worse that Michael Schumacher. I hope McLaren sack his arse.Sure the team talk and discuss their rivals car and things, who doesn’t? Where does the competition draw a line if it’s purely done on best guess? McLaren’s members simply got caught in the act and the whole thing blew up like fireworks simply because it was McLaren VS Ferrari. What happened when Spyker and Red Bull were in a conflict over illegal possession of intellectual documents? Nothing happened because the FIA didn’t care. How can I respect the FIA’s decisions and believe McLaren are 100% guilty of what they’ve been made to look like.I just want to forget and move on, as Ron Dennis wishes so too. For the SPORTS SAKE, not the FIA’s income.
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You are right – it was Kimi who left Mclaren. And I also agree that the whole "spy" thing blew out of proportion only because it was Mclaren having the advantage over Ferrari this season. FIA has, in the past, been partial to Ferrari & they always pick on any team that challenges the Ferraris in any way, especially Mclaren.
Honestly, I don’t think Mclaren deserved the punishment because the other F1 teams are probably just as guilty & will always be but I had prefered to think of it as payback for having allowed Kimi to leave after letting him down so many times (I mean, I still remember the errors during some of his pit-stops @ Mclaren).
But yes, you are right – we need to move on for the sake of the sport. So, let’s get back to the very interesting drivers championship battle – on track…… & hope that Kimi actually pulls it off this season!!!!!!!
PS: I hope I didn’t upset you – I didn’t mean to but if I did, I’m really very sorry!
Hope you’ll let me cash in on some of those brownie points….. (chuckle ;-))
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Haha, of course you didn’t upset me! *hugs* It’s just a not very nice subject for F1, unfortunatly.The only retribution that would be swift enough is for Kimi to win the championship this year. I totally didn’t care about it anymore because of the mood the spying thing has created, but seeing as the drivers’ championship is untouched and the mere fact it is untouched is because the FIA just couldn’t bare to not witness a British driver losing the title, Kimi better whup all of their asses, simply for ruining a great season.
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