Hi Guys, just a heads up.
You know Nigel Stepney (of the Ross Brawn/Jean Todt/Nigel Stepney fame)
has just been filed criminal charges by his parent company Ferrari team.
I dont want to go into details of the charge here but, his whereabouts after
the fact are "unknown" with rumors he is hiding somewhere in Asia.
Well guess what? I find this recent article funny in that he's actually hiding here in the Philippines!
Stepney responds
Ferrari's Nigel Stepney has responded to accusations of sabotage, telling The Sunday Times in London that he is the victim of a "dirty tricks campaign".
"I have confidence I’ll be cleared by the legal process that is now taking place," Stepney said, from his holiday location in the Philippines. "Everything is in the hands of my lawyer, so we’ll wait and see what happens."
Stepney says he is on a planned holiday and that Ferrari knows exactly where he is as his bookings were made through the Ferrari team travel office.
Print News Story It seems alot of famous F1 personalities are in "hiding" or retiring in the Philippines. Another F1 guy and team owner of Toleman racing team is now retired here in the Philippines with his Filipina wife.

NAWAWALA SI STEPNEY! :waah: :cry2:

heads up nyo naman ako dito,o...

Sorry forgot to mention. The above article comes from www.grandprix.com

I assume na mayroon siyang kinakasama ritong Pinay, tama ba? At may anak yata sila.....
Ang galing talaga ng Pinay!.....:grin:
3101:transform:

and the drama continues ....
The following statement was issued by McLaren Racing on Tuesday, July 3rd:
"McLaren became aware on the 3rd July 2007 that a senior member of its technical organisation was the subject of a Ferrari investigation regarding the receipt of technical information. The team has learnt that this individual had personally received a package of technical information from a Ferrari employee at the end of April.
Whilst McLaren has no involvement in the matter and condemns such actions it will fully co-operate with any investigation. The individual has in the meanwhile been suspended by the company pending a full and proper investigation of the matter.
No further comment will be made.
"
In view of the current investigation presently underway involving former Ferrari employee Nigel Stepney regarding questions of suspected sabotage and espionage within the Ferrari team, it is not known if this new information is linked with that ongoing case or if this issue is a separate matter.
Speculation shall now surely begin regarding the identity of the suspended McLaren team senior member.
Daniel BASTIEN
© CAPSIS International

McLaren involved in Ferrari spy scandal
The espionage scandal involving Ferrari's Nigel Stepney deepened late on Tuesday when McLaren admitted that one of its senior technical staff is also implicated.
Woking based McLaren did not name him, but it is widely reported to be 48-year-old chief designer Mike Coughlan, who has been suspended, 'regarding the receipt of technical information' from countryman Stepney.
McLaren, insisting that it will 'fully cooperate' with Ferrari's own investigation and that of Italian police, said: "The team has learnt that this individual had personally received a package of technical information from a Ferrari employee at the end of April."
Mercedes-Benz's Norbert Haug declined to comment, but a spokesman for Ferrari said: "We have proof that Stepney had been supplying technical information to a McLaren employee and we found evidence of that fact in his (Coughlan's) home."
Other publications were unsuccessful in attempting to contact Coughlan and Stepney, who have known each other for seventeen years and worked together at Benetton and latterly at Ferrari's former technical base in Surrey.
Coughlan still lives in Surrey, where police raided his home this week and apparently found incriminating evidence.
A spokesman for F1's governing body, meanwhile, said: "We have received information on this matter, which we are examining."
Source GMM
CAPSIS International

Hmmm, the plot thickens...:eek: I'm wondering would Mclaren have suspended its senior technical staff if Ferrari hadnt discovered the leak and started an investigation? Unlikely. All of the sudden Mclaren is coming clean. (like Pontius Pilate washing his hands of the matter).
I think Mclaren is now distancing themselves from this whole mess altogether, before they get sued...
BTW, do we have an extradition treaty with Italy?

Hmmm, the plot thickens...:eek: I'm wondering would Mclaren have suspended its senior technical staff if Ferrari hadnt discovered the leak and started an investigation? Unlikely. All of the sudden Mclaren is coming clean. (like Pontius Pilate washing his hands of the matter).
I think Mclaren is now distancing themselves from this whole mess altogether, before they get sued... Agree here,- That can also be an explanation why they are one of those who were protesting the "floor structure" of the Ferrari F1 car (not sure though).
Now, McLaren is engaging the International Automobile Federation to clear their name.... :rolleyes:
from:http://uk.reuters.com/article/motorS...16631420070704
McLaren reassure Ferrari about documents
Wed Jul 4, 2007 1:39PM BST

LONDON (Reuters) - Formula One championship leaders McLaren reassured Ferrari on Wednesday that they had not used any of the Italian team's data leaked to one of their senior technical employees.
"McLaren has completed a thorough investigation and can confirm that no Ferrari intellectual property has been passed to any other members of the team or incorporated into its cars," the British-based team said in a statement.
McLaren also invited the sport's governing body, the International Automobile Federation, to conduct a full review of the cars "to satisfy itself that the team has not benefited from any intellectual property of another competitor
---------------------------------------
Whew! :eek:
3101:transform:

aha kaya pala nananalo ang McLaren may leakage!

Honda confirm approach by Stepney and Coughlan
Honda have revealed that former Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney and McLaren’s chief designer Mike Coughlan paid a joint visit to the team last month, but stressed that no confidential information was offered or received during the meeting.
It follows news earlier this week that Ferrari are pursuing a case against Stepney and an unnamed McLaren engineer over the alleged theft of technical information from the Italian team. McLaren have since suspended the staff member in question.
“Given the speculation surrounding the legal investigations at Ferrari and McLaren, the Honda Racing F1 Team would like to clarify that earlier this year Nigel Stepney, formerly of Scuderia Ferrari, requested a meeting with Nick Fry, Chief Executive Officer of the Honda Racing F1 Team,” said Honda in a statement released Friday.
“Nigel Stepney subsequently met in June of this year with Nick Fry and brought with him Mike Coughlan of McLaren, with a view to investigating job opportunities within the Honda Racing F1 Team.
“Honda would like to stress that at no point during this meeting was any confidential information offered or received. Nick Fry informed Jean Todt and Ron Dennis of the meeting and has offered to provide any information required by Ferrari and McLaren.”

Aside from Mike Coughlan, Chief Designer of McLaren Mercedes F1 Team, and the one who is accused of espionage, another McLaren guy, Jonathan Neale, the Team Managing Director was also mentioned.
Whew,- again, the plot thickens....
3202:rainbow:
-----------------------------------------
From http://www.timesonline.co.uk
Coughlan accused of ‘disgraceful’ behaviour
Edward Gorman, Motor Racing Correspondent
Mike Coughlan, the chief designer of the McLaren Mercedes Formula One team, and his wife, Trudy, were described as behaving “disgracefully” in receiving and then copying a huge dossier of secret information belonging to Ferrari, a court in London heard yesterday.
As the Formula One espionage scandal moved into the High Court, where a preliminary hearing into the case was held, Nigel Tozzi, QC, a lawyer for Ferrari, said of the couple: “Their conduct by taking these documents knowing that they were not entitled to them, keeping them and copying them – on any view they behaved disgracefully.”
Tozzi, who named the Coughlans as the defendants in Ferrari’s action, said that the Italian team would have been “blissfully ignorant” about the theft of their documents had it not been for a “tip-off” Ferrari received.
This came from a staff member in a printing shop near the Coughlans’ home in Surrey where the documents were taken for photocopying. The staff member in the shop saw that they were confidential and belonged to Ferrari and, after copying them, decided to contact the team’s headquarters in Italy.
Until yesterday it was thought that the dossier allegedly given to Coughlan by Nigel Stepney, the disaffected former Ferrari mechanic who is facing a criminal investigation in Italy, ran to about 500 pages. However, Tozzi told Mr Justice Briggs that some 780 pages of documents had been recovered from the Coughlans’ home, along with two computer discs on which the documents had been copied.
An ashen-faced Coughlan was present in Court 59, but he did not speak during the hearing and refused to answer reporters’ questions before and after it. The McLaren design chief, who has been suspended pending the outcome of the case, is facing legal bills estimated at £50,000 after the judge ordered him to pay costs incurred by Ferrari in having his home searched last week by an independent firm of solicitors.
Tozzi argued that the Coughlans should be made to pay the highest “indemnity” level of costs, but the judge said that they would pay at the standard level because they had “conducted themselves in a highly cooperative and productive manner during the search” and since then.
The court heard that Ferrari have yet to search through the documents taken. These have been reported to amount to a virtual blueprint of the Italian team’s operations on and off the race track.
The Coughlans were given until this morning to hand in to the court sworn statements detailing everything they know about the stolen material, but it was not clear whether they will do so for fear of incriminating themselves in any legal action in Italy.
No details were given at the hearing about how Ferrari allege the Coughlans came into possession of the documents.
It seems that Mike Coughlan was not the only McLaren employee who knew about the documents. The court was told that Jonathan Neale, the team managing director, was also aware of them, although it was not clear whether he knew of their existence before or after Ferrari’s legal action began against Coughlan. Tozzi told the court: “It is unclear when and how Neale was told about the documents.”
The hearing came as sources at Ferrari revealed that the team have asked McLaren – who have claimed that Coughlan was the only person in the team who knew about the Ferrari material – to clarify what Neale knew and when he knew it.
Neale is not the subject of legal action by Ferrari. The team have also asked to see the contents of a computer, described as owned by a “third party”, that Ferrari believe was used by Coughlan.

Whoops... this is a big'un.

It appears that McLaren is bound to be disqualified this season. What a shame.

It appears that McLaren is bound to be disqualified this season. What a shame. We'll see.
Apparently, Coughlan shared the Ferrari documents with his McLaren colleagues who told him to destroy them..... However, it would be hard to believe(IMO only) that since the documents were shared,- its pertinent features were not implemented in their design/strategy, as claimed by Coughlan/McLaren.
Also, RD's earlier statement that nobody in McLaren saw these documents is now challenged.....
3202:rainbow:

Actually, the smoking gun will have to be McLaren's filing of an official complaint to the FIA early this year about Ferrari's movable flooring. How could a rival know thy secret? The fact that it was an official McLaren complaint, that means everyone up to the top has knowledge of the stolen secrets, and used them to their advantage.
If it's any consolation, I like Lewis Hamilton's driving style. But if he didn't had a nice car (with stolen Ferrari secrets) and debuted in a SPyker or Torro Rosso, baka nasa kangkungan pa din sya ngayon.

Actually, the smoking gun will have to be McLaren's filing of an official complaint to the FIA early this year about Ferrari's movable flooring. How could a rival know thy secret? The fact that it was an official McLaren complaint, that means everyone up to the top has knowledge of the stolen secrets, and used them to their advantage.
If it's any consolation, I like Lewis Hamilton's driving style. But if he didn't had a nice car (with stolen Ferrari secrets) and debuted in a SPyker or Torro Rosso, baka nasa kangkungan pa din sya ngayon. Hehehe,- agree with your smoking gun....., Whew! :grin:
We'll then see how the FIA will 'manage' this controversy.....:rolleyes:
3202:rainbow:


http://f1manchild.googlepages.com/main.htm :grin:

BoyFerrari,- As you've pointed out, here's the most serious (and 'well-known') issue of them all, which is proving to be adverse to McLaren's position in this controversy.... Whew!
Actually, I was really pleasantly surprised how fast McLaren was able to adapt to the new Bridgestone tyres and how fast they were able to improve the reliability of their engines. I am leaving this as it is for now.... until the 26th.....
3303:shocked:
from:www.timesonline.co.uk
McLaren’s position takes turn for worse after new revelations
Edward Gorman, Motor Racing Correspondent
McLaren Mercedes may have discovered key technical details of this year’s Ferrari F2007 before the season even started, it was alleged yesterday, as the Ferrari-McLaren secrets scandal overshadowed the build-up to the European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring on Sunday.
In the latest revelation of an affair that is rocking Formula One, Autosport magazine reported that Nigel Stepney, the disaffected Ferrari mechanic, allegedly sent an e-mail to Mike Coughlan, the now suspended chief designer at McLaren, before the season started detailing the moveable “floor” design on the new Ferrari.
Although it is not known what Coughlan did with the e-mail, McLaren asked the FIA, the sport’s governing body, for clarification about Ferrari’s floor design at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. This resulted in a new ruling on floors that required a change in the Ferrari design, after which the Italian team suffered a slump in form.
The disclosure about the e-mail helps to explain why the FIA had previously said that the scope of its investigation into McLaren, whom it has charged with “fraudulent conduct”, goes back to the beginning of March and does not begin at the end of April, when McLaren say Coughlan first received a 780-page dossier of Ferrari secrets.
The situation for McLaren, to coin a phrase, is getting “seriouser and seriouser”, with each revelation tending to undermine assertions by Ron Dennis, the team principal, that Coughlan was the only man in the team involved in the affair and that no secret data from Ferrari has been used by the team in their campaign this season.
For Lewis Hamilton, the danger is that his charge to an historic world title in his rookie season could be derailed if the FIA finds McLaren guilty at an emergency meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Paris next Thursday. The young British racer has arrived in Germany recovering from a bout of flu and doing his best to try to keep the focus on the racing.
“I haven’t thought about it,” Hamilton said when asked if he was worried he could be thrown out of the championship. “I don’t think it’s going to happen, so I’m not worried. I’m confident with what the team has done over the years and I have all faith in the team. I don’t believe anything like that [passing secrets] would happen in the team.”
The 22-year-old from Stevenage, who has finished on the podium a record nine times in his first nine races, went on to sing the praises of his mentor, Dennis, and McLaren generally. “I’ve only been with the grand-prix team a year, but I have known Ron nine years and this is something he would never do. That’s why I have such great belief in the team. I do feel they are one of the most honest teams out there. There are always teams trying to bend the rules in some way, but I believe we are the most honest. For me, I believe we will be all right.”
One issue for McLaren, whether or not the team are punished by the FIA, is the likelihood that the effort required to deal with the affair will distract it from their performance on the track against a Ferrari team enjoying a resurgence in form. Already, McLaren have effectively lost they chief designer and now they have to prepare for the hearing next week.
Hamilton’s teammate, Fernando Alonso, who trails the Briton by 12 points in second place in the drivers’ championship, underlined the dangers. “I think we don’t know the full history of that and we don’t have the full information,” he said. “I think that as a driver we will try to stay away from that, try to concentrate and try to approach the weekend in a very normal way with the engineers and thinking about the set-up of the car. We are not thinking too much about [the council meeting] next week. What will happen, will happen anyway and they will decide whatever they think is the good thing.”