Briatore – no sympathy for McLaren plight

(GMM) Flavio Briatore says a new espionage saga involving the Renault team is in the FIA's hands.

It was reported recently that, upon switching from McLaren to Renault, engineer Phil Mackereth took with him three disks of technical information about the Woking based team.

In an interview with Sport Auto, Renault principal Briatore played down the comparison with the Stepneygate saga.

"What happened is what happens probably all the time," he said. "It cannot be controlled. I don't want to say anything, because it is now something for the FIA to judge."

But Briatore suggests that the information was only leaked to the media in the midst of McLaren's deep involvement in the spy saga.

"They made noises that something with us is not right. Why did they say that to the media? If they have proof then they should just give it to the FIA.

"We have given everything that we know about the case to the FIA and also to McLaren," he added.

Briatore declined to answer whether he feels compassion for Ron Dennis after his team was fined $100m and kicked out of the 2007 constructors' title.

"I don't want to play the judge," said the Italian. "If Ron Dennis believes firmly that he did nothing wrong, then he should appeal.

"I can only comment on what I see. Last year McLaren were nowhere, and now they drive for the title. I am not the one who can judge from where this performance jump came from.

"This was not a case of an engineer carrying a bit of data from another team. If you read the detail of the World Council meetings, it becomes clear that a constant flow of information took place over a period of months," Briatore said.