Mosley wanted to punish McLaren more

Max Mosley says he wanted to ban McLaren over the Spygate affair in 2007 but was outvoted by fellow World Motor Sport Council members. The former FIA president also claims the whole episode led to him be seen a "bully" by many people.

In a tell-all piece in The Sunday Telegraph, Mosley claims he was in favor of banning McLaren after they were found guilty of being in possession of confidential Ferrari information.

'The only safe thing would have been to exclude them from 2007 immediately and also from the 2008 championship. But with little or no income for 18 months and over 1,000 employees, their situation would have been dire. A ban would also have destroyed the great championship battle which was going on between Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen.

'I was for a ban. I understood the consequences but I believe in the old legal maxim "hard cases make bad law". But I was outvoted (so much for the accusations of dictatorship) and the council went for a very large ($100 million) fine instead. McLaren did not appeal. No doubt they realized that the ICA would almost certainly substitute a ban for the fine. They also knew no civil court was likely to interfere with a ban in such circumstances and the requirement to make full disclosure under oath during the legal process of discovery might lead to much greater embarrassment.

'Despite the large sum involved, McLaren knew they had got off lightly, particularly after checks on the 2008 car revealed further devastating evidence. One email exchange between engineers responsible for the 2007 and 2008 cars asked whether information had come "from our mole" at Ferrari.

'But for me, personally, "spygate" and its consequences marked a new era. The view that I was too aggressive, too confrontational and perhaps even a bully was peddled non-stop. I was blamed (wrongly as it happens) for the size of the fine.' planet-f1.com