Spy row may cost us millions, claim Ferrari

Ferrari's lawyers have claimed that it is "likely" McLaren are leading the world championship only because their chief designer had access to the Italian team's secrets. In a document obtained by the Guardian and the Milan-based daily Corriere della Sera, Ferrari say that losing the title would cost them well over 5.5m Euros.

The document, lodged with the high court in London last Friday relating to an ongoing case taken out by Ferrari against McLaren's chief designer, Mike Coughlan, sets out in greater detail than ever before their accusations in the sabotage scandal that has divided formula one.

McLaren, who go before the governing body, the FIA, today to answer charges of benefiting from 780 pages of information about the design of the Ferrari which were allegedly passed from the former chief mechanic Nigel Stepney to Coughlan, have repeatedly and vigorously denied any wrongdoing. A spokeswoman for the team declined to make any comment.

McLaren have insisted from the outset that the only member of their technical organisation to have received Ferrari's confidential information was Coughlan, who was suspended this month. In its most recent statement, on July 16, McLaren repeated that "no Ferrari material or data are, or have ever been, in the possession of any McLaren employee other than the individual sued by Ferrari".

This is contested in the document, which lists five occasions on which, Ferrari claim, their secrets were made known to McLaren executives including Martin Witmarsh, the team's chief operations officer, and Paddy Lowe, the engineering director.

Contrary to reports this month, the Italian team have not dropped their high court action against Coughlan and his wife Trudy. Outlining their case against the couple before last Sunday's grand prix, Ferrari's lawyers noted that, at that time, they were only 25 points behind McLaren in the constructors' championship. "The difference between the two teams is so close that it is likely that McLaren's superior number of points is a consequence of its chief designer having the Ferrari documents," the team's lawyers say.

They also claim that the fact that Coughlan "was in possession of the Ferrari documents has given McLaren an unfair advantage over Ferrari" this season.

They add that if McLaren wins this year "Ferrari will suffer loss of at least ˆ5.5m" in payments under the agreement that governs the constructors' championship. But, in addition, they "may suffer loss in respect of damage to the Ferrari brand" - sponsorship and sales.

However, the team's claim does not put a figure on the damages that Ferrari is seeking from the British couple. The next stage will be for Coughlan and his wife to submit their defence to the court.

Trudy Coughlan is claimed to have arranged for documents belonging to Ferrari to be scanned to disk. They allegedly contained a wealth of detail about the Maranello team's operations - down to "freight rates, which would enable a competitor to evaluate the amount of material shipped from Ferrari's headquarters in Italy to each grand prix".

The document says that the papers were supplied to Coughlan by Stepney who denies all wrongdoing and was quoted as saying he had been "framed". Stepney is formally under investigation in Italy in a judicial inquiry sparked by Ferrari.

The Italian team's lawyers claimed Ste-pney also tipped off McLaren to a modification to the "floor" of the F2007 that was pointed out to the FIA by McLaren and subsequently banned. But their submission to the high court reveals Ferrari also accuse Stepney of informing McLaren about the brakes and rear wing-flap separators.

In successive statements, McLaren has claimed that no modifications were made to their cars as a result of information held by their chief designer.

Ferrari's lawyers do not argue the point. But, they say: "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."

(Source: Guardian.co.uk)