http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/sports/othersports/13cnd-mclaren.html?hp
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium, Sept. 13</CLASSIFIER> — McLaren Mercedes, the leading auto-racing team in the Formula One world championship, was fined $100 million today and excluded from the constructors championship this season, after the International Automobile Federation found the team guilty of cheating by using data obtained from Ferrari, its main rival, to improve its own car.
The punishment was by far the harshest in the 57-year history of the sport.
The federation said that it had, stripped Vodafone McLaren Mercedes of all constructors points in the 2007 Formula One World Championship and that the team could not score any points for the remainder of the season. It added in a statement that the team would not receive any of the sport’s commercial rights money this season either.
The team may continue to race in the series, however, and its two drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, who lead the series, will keep their points and may continue to fight for the drivers’ title.
This is the first time that a leading team i has been excluded from the championship. Should Ferrari fail to score more points than McLaren by the end of the season, then there will be no constructors’ title winner this year.
But as the teams gathered here for the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend, McLaren had been leading the series by only 23 points over Ferrari. A team may obtain a maximum of 18 points for taking first and second place in a race, so Ferrari appears virtually certain to earn enough points to win the title.
The so-called Formula One spy scandal broke out in early July when Ferrari accused McLaren of using data provided by a Ferrari employee to a McLaren employee in order to improve the quality of its racing car. The British police had found 780 pages of documents about the Ferrari car at the home of Mike Coughlan, the McLaren technical director, in England.
Ferrari believed that a former employee, Nigel Stepney, who had been frustrated by staff organizational changes at Ferrari this season, had provided the information to Mr. Coughlan. At a hearing on July 26, the International Automobile Federation found McLaren guilty of possessing the data, but it did not punish the team as it said it could not prove that the team had used the data to improve the car.
The federation said, however, that if new evidence arose to show that the data had been used “to the detriment of the championship,” then McLaren could be kicked out of the series this year and in 2008. It said today that it would provide the full reasons behind its decision on Friday.
On July 31, the federation announced that the case would return to its appeal court today, , after a request made by the Italian motor sport federation. Last week, the federation announced that new evidence had been found and the appeal had been dropped, but that the World Motor Sport Council had been reconvened for a new hearing on the same day.
The International Automobile Federation, the sport’s governing body, asked the drivers of the McLaren team — Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Alonso and the test driver, Pedro de la Rosa — to provide any information that they might have in exchange for immunity to any punishment. It was believed that the drivers had exchanged information based on information they had received from Mr. Stepney and Mr. Coughlan.
The federation said it gave the team’s drivers immunity in exchange for providing evidence because of the “exceptional circumstances” of the case.
The federation also said that for 2008, “it would receive a full technical report on the 2008 McLaren car and will take a decision at its December 2007 meeting as to what sanction, if any, will be imposed on the team for the 2008 season.”
Although Ferrari initiated a separate criminal investigation in Italy, the federation began its own investigation in order to determine whether McLaren had violated a portion of the International Sporting Code that deals with competitors who bring the sport into disrepute for fraudulent conduct or acts prejudicial to the interests of the sport.
The McLaren team was founded by Bruce McLaren, a driver who died in a racing accident in 1970. It won its first team and driver title in 1974, and it has won seven more since then, but none since 1998. The team also won its first drivers title in 1974, and has won 10 more since then, the last being in 1999.
But since 1980, the team has been operated in the image of its part owner and director, Ron Dennis. Mr. Dennis began as a mechanic in Formula One in 1966 and he rose up the ranks to become one of the most successful team owners and directors in the sport, as well as amassing a personal fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
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SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium, Sept. 13</CLASSIFIER> — McLaren Mercedes, the leading auto-racing team in the Formula One world championship, was fined $100 million today and excluded from the constructors championship this season, after the International Automobile Federation found the team guilty of cheating by using data obtained from Ferrari, its main rival, to improve its own car.
The punishment was by far the harshest in the 57-year history of the sport.
The federation said that it had, stripped Vodafone McLaren Mercedes of all constructors points in the 2007 Formula One World Championship and that the team could not score any points for the remainder of the season. It added in a statement that the team would not receive any of the sport’s commercial rights money this season either.
The team may continue to race in the series, however, and its two drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, who lead the series, will keep their points and may continue to fight for the drivers’ title.
This is the first time that a leading team i has been excluded from the championship. Should Ferrari fail to score more points than McLaren by the end of the season, then there will be no constructors’ title winner this year.
But as the teams gathered here for the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend, McLaren had been leading the series by only 23 points over Ferrari. A team may obtain a maximum of 18 points for taking first and second place in a race, so Ferrari appears virtually certain to earn enough points to win the title.
The so-called Formula One spy scandal broke out in early July when Ferrari accused McLaren of using data provided by a Ferrari employee to a McLaren employee in order to improve the quality of its racing car. The British police had found 780 pages of documents about the Ferrari car at the home of Mike Coughlan, the McLaren technical director, in England.
Ferrari believed that a former employee, Nigel Stepney, who had been frustrated by staff organizational changes at Ferrari this season, had provided the information to Mr. Coughlan. At a hearing on July 26, the International Automobile Federation found McLaren guilty of possessing the data, but it did not punish the team as it said it could not prove that the team had used the data to improve the car.
The federation said, however, that if new evidence arose to show that the data had been used “to the detriment of the championship,” then McLaren could be kicked out of the series this year and in 2008. It said today that it would provide the full reasons behind its decision on Friday.
On July 31, the federation announced that the case would return to its appeal court today, , after a request made by the Italian motor sport federation. Last week, the federation announced that new evidence had been found and the appeal had been dropped, but that the World Motor Sport Council had been reconvened for a new hearing on the same day.
The International Automobile Federation, the sport’s governing body, asked the drivers of the McLaren team — Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Alonso and the test driver, Pedro de la Rosa — to provide any information that they might have in exchange for immunity to any punishment. It was believed that the drivers had exchanged information based on information they had received from Mr. Stepney and Mr. Coughlan.
The federation said it gave the team’s drivers immunity in exchange for providing evidence because of the “exceptional circumstances” of the case.
The federation also said that for 2008, “it would receive a full technical report on the 2008 McLaren car and will take a decision at its December 2007 meeting as to what sanction, if any, will be imposed on the team for the 2008 season.”
Although Ferrari initiated a separate criminal investigation in Italy, the federation began its own investigation in order to determine whether McLaren had violated a portion of the International Sporting Code that deals with competitors who bring the sport into disrepute for fraudulent conduct or acts prejudicial to the interests of the sport.
The McLaren team was founded by Bruce McLaren, a driver who died in a racing accident in 1970. It won its first team and driver title in 1974, and it has won seven more since then, but none since 1998. The team also won its first drivers title in 1974, and has won 10 more since then, the last being in 1999.
But since 1980, the team has been operated in the image of its part owner and director, Ron Dennis. Mr. Dennis began as a mechanic in Formula One in 1966 and he rose up the ranks to become one of the most successful team owners and directors in the sport, as well as amassing a personal fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
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