Posted at 6:08 a.m., Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Autos: FIA cancels McLaren's hearing in spy scandal
Associated Press
PARIS (AP) _ The governing body of world motorsports called off its spy scandal hearing with Formula One team McLaren on Tuesday.The hearing before FIA's World Motor Sport Council, to decide whether McLaren illegally used confidential Ferrari data to design its 2008 car, had been scheduled for Feb. 14.
But last week McLaren apologized for its role in the spy scandal, with chief operating officer Martin Whitmarsh writing a letter to the WMSC to express his embarrassment that the secret Ferrari documents were widely spread through his team.
The general meeting had already been postponed from Dec. 8, and McLaren's public apology came five days later.
If McLaren had been found guilty in the hearing, it could have faced severe sanctions for the 2008 season, which starts March 16 with the Australian Grand Prix.
McLaren was fined a record $100 million in September by the WMSC for unauthorized possession of confidential Ferrari materials. The team was also kicked out of the constructors' championship.
McLaren has acknowledged that some Ferrari information had been disclosed directly, or indirectly, to people within the company apart from test driver Pedro de la Rosa and former driver Fernando Alonso.
The case broke open in July when a 780-page technical dossier on Ferrari cars was found at the home of McLaren's chief designer, Mike Coughlan, who later was suspended. Ferrari mechanic Nigel Stepney, who allegedly supplied the documents, was fired.
