22/07/2007
NEWS STORY
McLaren boss Ron Dennis has revealed that in advance of this Thursday's extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council, at which it will be decided if the Woking team breached Article 151c of the International Sporting Code, his team has submitted a dossier which contains a "full account" of its role.
Speaking to reporters at the Nurburgring, Dennis said: "We've presented a full dossier to them, which will be distributed to the World Motor Sport Council members, and we will go through a proper process on Thursday.
"Whilst it would be wrong to say I look forward to Thursday, because I'm not particularly looking forward to it, I am keen to get into the process of putting this behind us," he admitted. "I am confident the information presented to the FIA is the true account of all the circumstances surrounding this matter."
The Englishman was highly critical of some of the recent media coverage of the saga, and in particular the apparent leaking of parts of Mike Coughlan's sworn affidavit, which was supposed to have only been seen by Ferrari, the FIA and the (suspended) McLaren designer himself. However, since the affidavit was submitted a number of Italian publications claim to have seen it, with the result being that a number of news stories have emerged, none of them showing the Woking team in a particularly good light. Indeed, one Italian publication claims that Coughlan admits to having had spoken of the documents to McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh.
Though he didn't hint at the possible identity of those supposedly leaking the information, Dennis did warn that there will be "legal implications".
Yesterday's press conference was also the first time that Dennis has publicly named Mike Coughlan as the McLaren employee embroiled in the saga.
Although few suspect the Woking outfit of using information contained in the 780 pages of documentation on the MP4-22, there remains concern over the timescale of the saga, particularly in relation to the British team's request that the FIA investigate Ferrari's 'moving floor'.