Espionage Allegations
On 21 June it was reported that Stepney was the subject of a criminal inquiry by the Modena district attorney, initiated after Ferrari reportedly made a formal complaint. No reason for the investigation was given, with the specifics of the complaint not being released to the public. A Ferrari spokesman told Reuters "It is not related to any event; it is related to his behaviour." It was later reported that this was due to the team finding a white residue powder in the fuel tanks of their cars post the Monaco Grand Prix, where they finished third and eighth. He was also accused of selling Ferrari parts to competing teams. He has since denied the accusations and has claimed to be the victim of a "dirty tricks campaign".
On 3 July Stepney was dismissed by Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. Later the same day Ferrari announced it was taking legal action against Stepney and a McLaren engineer named by Autosport.com as Mike Coughlan; A Ferrari press release stated:
| “ | Ferrari announces it has recently presented a case against Nigel Stepney and an engineer from the Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes team with the Modena Tribunal, concerning the theft of technical information. Furthermore, legal action has been instigated in England and a search warrant has been issued concerning the engineer. This produced a positive outcome. | ” |
On his return from holiday in the Philippines on 5 July, Stepney was interrogated by the Italian police as part of the industrial espionage case. On 6 July Honda F1 released a statement confirming that Stepney and Coughlan approached the team regarding "job opportunities" in June 2007. Since the revelation of Coughlan's involvement in the affair McLaren provided a full set of drawings and development documents to the FIA, detailing all updates made to the team's chassis since the incident occurred at the end of April.
On 4 October 2007, in a complete twist to the 2007 Formula One espionage controversy, Nigel Stepney issued a statement claiming that he had received key information about McLaren's set-up, pit-stops, weight distribution and other aspects of various parts of their car when he was still a Ferrari employee and said that Ferrari had gotten off lightly.
Read more about this topic: Nigel Stepney
Famous quotes containing the word espionage:
“He hadn’t known me fifteen minutes, and yet he was ... ready to talk ... I was still to learn that Munshin, like many people from the capital, could talk openly about his personal life while remaining a dream of espionage in his business operations.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)