New F1 spy saga ignites

UPDATE #2 Autosport reports that as many as 15 engineers at Renault had proprietary McLaren design data, even the chief designer Tim Densham. Expect Max Mosley and the FIA to hammer them as hard or harder than McLaren, who received a $100M fine and a loss of all constructors points for 2007. If Renault has to pay that sort of fine (and how can they not since the precedence has been set with McLaren) expect Renault to pull the plug on the entire program. And even if they do not, Renault President Carlos Ghosn will simply cut their budget dramatically meaning the team will become a mere shadow of its former self. In addition, Fernando Alonso could be out of that ride and will be forced to go to Red Bull, or tend to his garden for a year.

Unlike the Renault case, none of the Ferrari details got as far as McLaren's computers. If McLaren were punished so heavily on the suspicion that Ferrari information may have been used, then the penalty due to Renault should be similar, or one can argue even more severe.

The steep fine imposed upon McLaren has set a dangerous precedence and the sword the FIA have created is aimed right at their own back.

11/09/07 A Renault employee on his way to McLaren was the one who reportedly told the Woking outfit that his former team had CDs of McLaren's technical information.

In the latest spy scandal to rock Formula One, Renault have been charged by the FIA of having "unauthorized possession of documents and confidential information belonging to McLaren."

According to the Times, the 'affair goes back to the end of last year, when Phil Mackereth, a design engineer with McLaren, was recruited by Renault and allegedly arrived with three computer disks of technical data.'

The FIA claims that these disks, which included various technical secrets as well as "a novel suspension component used by the 2006 and 2007" McLarens, were in the hands of Renault from September 2006 until October this year.

But while the information may have reached Renault through an ex-McLaren employee, Reuters claims that McLaren were tipped off about the disks through an employee moving in the opposite direction from Renault to McLaren. PlanetF1

11/08/07 (GMM) Renault chiefs have been summoned to the World Motor Sport Council as a new espionage saga kicks off in formula one.

Mere weeks after McLaren was kicked out of the 2007 constructors' championship and fined $100m for spying on Ferrari, it now emerges that Renault is similarly accused of possessing secret data about the McLaren car.

At the height of the so-called Stepney-gate scandal, it was reported that McLaren had evidence that Renault was also involved in a case of espionage, following the departure of an engineer to the French team.

Media reports identified the former McLaren engineer as Phil Mackereth, who supposedly took with him to Renault three disks of detailed information about the Woking based team.

An FIA statement on Thursday said Renault chiefs would appear at the World Motor Sport Council in Monaco on December 6.

They will "answer a charge that between September 2006 and October 2007" the team had "unauthorized possession of documents and confidential information" belonging to McLaren including "the layout and critical dimensions" of the McLaren car.

Also in Renault's unauthorized possession was "details of the McLaren fuelling system, gear assembly, oil cooling system, hydraulic control system and a novel suspension component used by the 2006 and 2007 McLaren F1 cars", the FIA statement charged.