26/07/2007
NEWS STORY
British newspaper The Guardian is claiming to have seen a document lodged by Ferrari with the High Court in London that sheds further light on the ongoing espionage saga, and, if correct, corresponds with recent claims in the Italian media.
Indeed, The Guardian states that it and Corriere della Sera have seen the document, the Italian newspaper having previously claimed to have seen Mike Coughlan's sworn (secret) affidavit in which the Englishman admits to having told senior McLaren officials Martin Whitmarsh and Paddy Lowe about the documentation in his possession.
According to The Guardian, Ferrari's lawyers are claiming that it is "likely" that McLaren is leading the World Championship(s) because of the documentation McLaren had in its possession. It is further claimed that the fact that Coughlan "was in possession of the Ferrari documents has given McLaren an unfair advantage over Ferrari" this season.
The Italian team claims that should McLaren win the championship(s) "Ferrari will suffer loss of at least 5.5m Euros" under the payment scheme agreed with FOM. They further claim that they "may suffer loss in respect of damage to the Ferrari brand", which most likely relates to sponsorship deal and merchandise sales.
The document alleges that the documentation contained a wealth of invaluable information, including such detail as freight costs.
Most worrying for McLaren however, is the lawyer's claim that in addition to tipping off McLaren about the moving floor on the F2007, the Englishman also gave the team information about the brakes and rear wing-flap separators.
While McLaren argues that it knew nothing of the information in Coughlan's possession, and that none of it was incorporated into its own car, Ferrari remains adamant: "The chief designer is part of the key group of three to four people who drive the technical team to improve the car. The opportunity for a chief designer to influence the car's performance in all areas is huge."
Although this does not look good for the Woking team, we ask once again, who is leaking this information and why?