I'm not taking a side in this but technically, Ferrari was "let off the hook" because the officials let the illegal parts out of their custody before a deadline for a protest that would have included a remeasurement. As a result, policy was changed to impound cars after any infraction until the team agreed with the findings OR any protest was resolved.

The new evidence makes clear that:

• Coughlan had more information than previously appreciated and was receiving information in a systematic manner over a period of months;
• The information has been disseminated, at least to some degree (e.g. to Mr. de la Rosa and Mr. Alonso), within the McLaren team;
• The information being disseminated within the McLaren team included not only highly sensitive technical information but also secret information regarding Ferrari’s sporting strategy;
• Mr de la Rosa, in the performance of his functions at McLaren, requested and received secret Ferrari information from a source which he knew to be illegitimate and expressly stated that the purpose of his request was to run tests in the simulator;
• The secret information in question was shared with Mr. Alonso;
• There was a clear intention on the part of a number of McLaren personnel to use some of the Ferrari confidential information in its own testing. If this was not in fact carried into effect it was only because there were technical reasons not to do so;
• Coughlan’s role within McLaren (as now understood by the WMSC) put him in a position in which his knowledge of the secret Ferrari information would have influenced him in the performance of his duties.

The Council concluded that “some degree of sporting advantage was obtained, though it may forever be impossible to quantify that advantage in concrete terms.”

For the full transcript of the Council’s judgement, click here.

Dennis said at Spa on Friday that he approached the FIA as soon as he became aware of the existence of the emails.

“Once I became aware that new evidence might exist which I did on the morning of the Hungarian GP (5 August), I immediately phoned the FIA to keep them informed,” he said.

Dennis added that McLaren is still considering whether to appeal Thursday's WMSC verdict.

“We now have seven days to appeal and are carefully considering the company’s position once we have a full understanding of the FIA’s findings,” he said.

Source iTV

save face mode..

De la Rosa probably hasn't seen the end of this. The FIA makes it very clear that his explanations about the communications are NOT true. That voids any immunity. De la Rosa clearly tried to protect McLaren by saying he got the information but it was never used. The FIA's explanation for why that is untrue really can't be refuted. The FIA may have not done anything just to hold that over McLaren's head to head off an appeal or law suit.

Lets hope nobody can ever show Hamilton lied when he said he never heard any of the same or (different) information that Alonso and de la Rosa heard or his immunity is also gone.

Money aside, I think McLaren deserves the forfeiture of points. They did not come clean about the true situation.

Its a shame this year's driver's championship will never be accepted by partisan fans of either McLaren or Ferrari. Ferrari's unreliability would have cost them both championships even if McLaren did not have their files.

And will someone please explain why McLaren hasn't sacked Coughlan immediately after the August ruling if not sooner? I will not be surprised he was/is kept on to keep his silence about just how much the Ferrari information was used.

As the FIA said it is impossible to know how much McLaren gained from the Ferrari connection but it was much more than the 780 pages. Stepney was feeding Coughlan over a period of week if not months through hundreds of phone calls and SMS messages.

All I know is McLaren was behind Ferrari in the beginning of the season until they put on their double plane front wing, which must have been inspired by Ferrari's design and/or data.

McLaren got off easy because the FIA wanted to keep the drivers championship - which is much more important to fans - going till the end of the year. I wonder what the decision would have been if Hamilton had not been leading the championship?

Turns out Alonso on the morning of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the reigning world champion threatened to go to the FIA with information in his possession.

Dennis told Alonso to present his evidence to the FIA, before deciding to relate events to Mosley via a telephone call himself.

Mosley said: "Ron rang me and he said, 'I've just had Alonso in the motorhome and he says he's got information and he's threatening to give it to the Federation'.

"So I said: 'What did you say (to him) Ron?' and he replied: 'go on and hand it over'.

"I said: 'Ron, you said exactly the right thing', and then Ron said: 'But there isn't any information'.

"So I said: 'So it's an empty threat?' And he replied: 'Yes, a completely empty threat. There's no information, there's nothing to come out. I can assure you that if there was something, Max, I would have told you'."

Source BBC




Source davidtan