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[bud]

By Forumula1.com Staff on Tuesday, November 8, 2011


Mike Coughlan’s return to the top of his game in Formula One is nothing short of scandalous, according to Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo.

The Briton was at the centre of the 2007 espionage scandal, sacked as McLaren’s chief designer and banned from formula one for receiving reams of secret technical information from a rogue Ferrari employee. He worked subsequently with the abortive Stefan GP team and also designed the Ocelot armoured vehicle before heading to NASCAR with Michael Waltrip Racing.

Earlier this year he returned to F1 as Williams’ new factory-based chief engineer, but team chairman Adam Parr quietly announced in India recently that Coughlan is already “our new technical director”.

“Coughlan’s return is a scandal,” Ferrari’s Montezemolo told Italy’s La Stampa newspaper. “It seems F1 never misses an opportunity to make a fool of itself.”

According to the Spanish sports daily Marca, an unnamed paddock source does not agree.

“‘Spygate’ was just a political war between Max Mosley and Ron Dennis, because everyone knows that information is swapping between F1 teams all the time.”

A separate question is whether Coughlan is the best replacement for his Williams predecessor Sam Michael, who will appear on the McLaren race team for the first time this weekend in Abu Dhabi.

“He (Coughlan) is a good designer,” said the Marca source, “but on the mechanical side.

“The aerodynamic aspect is not his forte, but of course, with Williams astray, there was no one better available,” he added.

As for Coughlan’s spying days in possession of secret Ferrari data in photocopy shops, the 52-year-old insists he has changed since 2007.

“Leaving a team and a sport that I love, and then seeing the consequences of my actions on the team and its fans was devastating,” he said. “All I can do now is work hard and try to earn my place back in Formula One. I can only hope that I can earn back everyone’s respect.”

in bold: Exactly.

[darwin dali]

I'm of two minds here. I agree with LDM, but also think second chances should be granted. Let's see how he does and goes about achieving what he would like to (the bit about earning the respect back).

[Jabberwocky]

I think the guy has done his time, as they said everyone does it he just got caught.

Plus his work on the Ocelot has redemed him in my eyes.

[andrew]

Leopards don't change their spots. Once a cheating scumbag, always a cheating scumbag. One of the few things that Mosley got right was coming down hard on Spygate.

A McLaren employee had documents that they shouldn't have so McLaren (or any other team) getting their arses hoofed was totally correct and they should consider themselves lucky that they didn't loose all their drivers point in 2007.

I'd like to know who the "unnamed paddock source" is - always have a laugh at these as their quotes always seem too perfect. I don't believe for 1 minute that information swapping of this magnitude is happening all the time. Maybe small titbits from seeing opponents cars on the track and from one engineer having a chat with another but not entire dossiers!

[bud]

Leopards don't change their spots. Once a cheating scumbag, always a cheating scumbag. One of the few things that Mosley got right was coming down hard on Spygate.
cars on the track and from one engineer having a chat with another but not entire dossiers!

That theory works well in um theory but where was this coming down hard attitude on Toyota? Where was it on Renault?

[Jabberwocky]

whatever next. People having there memories wiped when they move from team to team? where does it end.

If I was a Mclaren employee, and moved to Ferrari, and I thought Mclaren had a better way of working then I am sure as hell going to try and impress the new boss!

I bet if you look back at the double diffuser issue. I bet one person came up with the idea and then engineers from that team moved and then at teh start of the season there was a plethora of double diffusers

[andrew]

Leopards don't change their spots. Once a cheating scumbag, always a cheating scumbag. One of the few things that Mosley got right was coming down hard on Spygate.
cars on the track and from one engineer having a chat with another but not entire dossiers!

That theory works well in um theory but where was this coming down hard attitude on Toyota? Where was it on Renault?

What did Toyota do wrong - leave F1 sooner than they should? Hardly as bad as having a competitors manual. With Renault, Mosley got Briatore out of F1 for the time being so mission acomplished as far as he was concerned but Alonso was strangely unaware of everything around him and Piquet Jr was right royally shafted. Sure Mosley was and still is obsessed with childish vendettas but the FIA occasionally got something right under his reign.

whatever next. People having there memories wiped when they move from team to team? where does it end.

If I was a Mclaren employee, and moved to Ferrari, and I thought Mclaren had a better way of working then I am sure as hell going to try and impress the new boss!

I bet if you look back at the double diffuser issue. I bet one person came up with the idea and then engineers from that team moved and then at teh start of the season there was a plethora of double diffusers

It's one thing having ideas in your head but having a competitors documents leaves you open to all sorts of accusations. At least if you remember an idea you can either claim you thought of it yourself or you can't remember where you got it from but if you have a Ferrari manual in your hand you're kind of caught red handed an it's harder to argue your innosense.

[Hammer278]

I dont understand how Mike cheated. He was given the documents willingly, and he used them to his advantage. Did he hold a gun to that Ferrari engineers' (cant recall the name) head? No.

Please, if CEO of Coca Cola received the secret ingredients of Pepsi Cola and their strategic direction for the next 5 years, whats he going to do, throw them away without looking at them?

It's a cut throat world and the only person who should've been kicked in the nuts was the Ferrari guy and never be allowed to return to the sport. And even THIS shouldn't have had FIA involvement, rather it was completely Ferrari's problem. Maybe Ferrari should've been penalized for not having a handle on their employees? Though this won't be necessary as they had already been 'penalized' by their own employee.

[andrew]

I think it was the mechanic that Schumacher flattened (Nigel Stepney) during one of his pitstops in the 2000 Spanish GP that turned rouge and supplied the documents. Must have been some sort of revenge.

[bud]

What did Toyota do wrong - leave F1 sooner than they should? Hardly as bad as having a competitors manual. With Renault, Mosley got Briatore out of F1 for the time being so mission acomplished as far as he was concerned but Alonso was strangely unaware of everything around him and Piquet Jr was right royally shafted. Sure Mosley was and still is obsessed with childish vendettas but the FIA occasionally got something right under his reign.

I'm talking about intellectual property cases. Toyota were found guilty of having and using Ferrari intellectual property in the 04 or 03 season I think it was. They actually designed cars around it something McLaren never did.
Also in 07 Renault were found guilty of having McLaren intellectual property. Again no punishment.

There is no doubting Mosley used this as an attack on Dennis. After the first WMSC meeting where it was voted on and was done and dusted, he reopened it for another hearing.

[myownalias]

Two things here; first of all, LDM should be worrying about bringing Ferrari upto spec instead of talking about other teams and staff. The second is that as mentioned above; espionage has been part of F1 since it's inception, how many times have Ferrari used information from other teams to improve their own performance, LDM's holier than thou attitude is complete BS!

[Jabberwocky]

Using his example Ferrari should not use monocouque chassis, wings, and still be front wheel drive!!! Or did Ferrari copy that off someone else?

[racechick]

That whole espionage scam was a scandal! It was Max Mosely abusing his power and position to carry out a personal vendetta against Ron Dennis, whose success he resented (how dare a mere mechanic achieve more than the great Max Mosely) Mosley should have stuck to what he did best dressing up as a Nazzi and whipping whore's. I really hope Ron had a finger in the pie that exposed that little game.
On espionage. Its been done since the day dot! Wasnt Torra Rosso involved in something that very same season. As many F1 personel said at the time, its always gone on. Not enough had the balls to stand up to Mosely though, partly I suppose because of a vested interest in seeing McLaren punished(Ferrari) and partly for fear of draconian reprisals on themselves.

[LewEngBridewell]

I remember the Toyota espionage thing, it occurred in 2004, and was investigated more in 2005 (I think). At one stage, they stood a massive risk of loosing all the points from their first decent season, but the whole thing got brushed under the carpet in the end.

As for 2007, McLaren had that WCC easily wrapped up before that whole pile of . Such a disaster, and put a massive controversial downer on what was a close and exciting season.

[bud]

I remember the Toyota espionage thing, it occurred in 2004, and was investigated more in 2005 (I think). At one stage, they stood a massive risk of loosing all the points from their first decent season, but the whole thing got brushed under the carpet in the end.

As for 2007, McLaren had that WCC easily wrapped up before that whole pile of . Such a disaster, and put a massive controversial downer on what was a close and exciting season.

The FIA never got involved with the Toyota case, I guess Ferrari used the dossier case to take out their main rival by going to the FIA. The witch hunt began