FIA leaks McLaren, Ferrari secrets
Highlights of the document:
- Coughlan’s Salary: 300-400k British Pounds annually
- The gas Ferrari were using in their tires: CO2
- “…Ferrari system based on a….double rear master cylinder with a spring…"
- It's rather impressive at the level of technical competency that is evident of the F1 drivers from reading the transcripts. They completely understand the most technical details of the mechanical systems, aero, mechanical balance, even discussing esoteric elasticity concepts used on the wings. Their aero knowledge is very precise and minute.
- The simulators in use are obviously something totally beyond comprehension – able to simulate not only different tracks precisely but how a single click of a damper, turning vane adjustment, or pound of air impacts every other aspect of the cars handling not just speed.
- Coughlan was an idiot for telling de la Rosa it was Stepney that was giving him the information. This guy has the top specific info from the opposition and he tells a driver where he got it from. Does he not realize a driver may very well be working for the opposition in a few seasons time, is susceptible to pressure, and is the last person someone should tell where the magic rabbit hole is?
- It is extraordinary to see Mosley in action. He is literally Judge, Prosecutor, Jury, and Executioner. Whenever the Ferrari lawyers miss a point he is quick to bring it to the front, when he feels the Ferrari lawyers have not constructed an issue in as damning a way as possible he does it himself. Extraordinary. We thought he was the guy that was supposed to oversee a ‘fair’ hearing? Seems he doesn’t much care for Mr. Dennis as he is almost gleeful the way he goes about running the whole tribunal.
09/22/07 Here is the PDF the FIA accidently published. Copy the blacked out areas to MS Word and the words will be visible.
09/22/07 (GMM) With seemingly no end to the espionage saga, it now emerges that F1's governing body earlier this week contributed to the widespread distribution of dozens more McLaren and Ferrari secrets.
A day before releasing the nearly 200 pages of World Motor Sport Council transcripts to the public on Wednesday, the FIA had sent the documents to both teams so that confidential technical and financial information could be redacted.
But when the PDF documents were initially made available on the internet, it soon became clear that the blackened sections could easily be revealed if copy-pasted into another text editor.
The offending copies were quickly removed from the FIA website and replaced.
But a plethora of sensitive information, including not only technical team and car details but private figures such as suspended McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan's annual salary, and the precise weight distribution of the MP4-22 and also systems adopted by Ferrari, is therefore now widely known in various corners of the formula one world.
The philosophy of variable brake balance systems on both the McLaren and the Ferrari was also inadvertently revealed by the FIA, as well as details about Ferrari's unique method of inflating its tires, and other secrets.
We can confirm that some of those in possession of the formerly private information have been approached by motor racing figures asking to be let in on the secrets.
An FIA spokeswoman admits that the Paris based Federation is aware of the mistake.
She would not comment further, but the FIA confirmed last week that the transcripts had been recorded by a professional stenographer and formatted by an independent transcription company.