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#23459
Their press release on the matter:

Statement concerning the allegation against the ING Renault F1 Team regarding McLaren proprietary information

Following the notification of the FIA for the ING Renault F1 Team representatives to appear in front of the World Council, the team wishes to clarify the situation.

On the 6th September 2007 it came to our attention that an engineer (Mr Phil Mackereth) who joined the team from McLaren in Sept 2006 had brought with him some information that was considered to be proprietary to McLaren. This information was contained on old style floppy discs and included copies of some McLaren engineering drawings and some technical spreadsheets. This information was loaded at the request of Mr Mackereth onto his personal directory on the Renault F1 Team file system. This was done without the knowledge of anyone in authority in the team. As soon as the situation was brought to the attention of the team's technical management, the following actions were taken:

The information was completely cleansed from the team's computer systems and a formal investigation was started. We promptly informed McLaren of the situation and immediately after the FIA. Since then we have constantly and regularly kept McLaren and the FIA informed on all relevant findings. Mr Mackereth was immediately suspended from his position. The original floppy discs were impounded and sent to our solicitors for return to McLaren.

Our formal investigation showed that early in his employment with Renault Mr Mackereth made some of our engineers aware of parts of this information in the form of a few reduced scale engineering drawings. These drawings covered four basic systems as used by McLaren and were: the internal layout of the fuel tank, the basic layout of the gear clusters, a tuned mass damper and a suspension damper. Subsequent witness statements from the engineers involved have categorically stated that having been briefly shown these drawings, none of this information was used to influence design decisions relating to the Renault car. In the particular case of the tuned mass damper, these had already been deemed illegal by the FIA and therefore the drawing was of no value. The suspension damper drawing hinted that the McLaren design might be similarly considered illegal and a subsequent clarification from the FIA confirmed this based upon our crude interpretation of the concept.

ING Renault F1 Team have co-operated fully with McLaren and the FIA in this matter to the extent that the team has invited McLaren's independent experts to come and assess the team's computer systems and inspect the cars and the design records, to demonstrate that this unfortunate incident has not in anyway influenced the design of the cars.

ING Renault F1 Team have acted with complete transparency towards McLaren and the FIA, being proactive in solving this matter and we are fully confident in the judgment of the World Council.


What do you guys think? Are Renault running scared and trying to do some damage limitation in the face of the McLaren judgement? Did Ferrari actually prove McLaren had used their designs or just merely had access to them?
User avatar
By McLaren Fan
#23488
Seems like a similar scenario to what happened at McLaren. Only one or two people knew about, the information was only slightly more significant than what McLaren had, however, to quote Mosley, we're dealing with 'ideas' and there is a chance that these ideas found their way into Renault's car.

The FIA must treat Renault in exactly the same way. If they don't it will only stoke the already-blazing fires of the FIA being in bed with Ferrari and their personal issues with McLaren.
User avatar
By racechick
#23574
Yep. This will be interesting indeed to watch. Max Mosely's use of the FIA to persue a personal vendetta against Ron Dennis has opened a can of worms. Serves him right! I doubt McLaren would have done anything about Renault having that info were it not for the way they have been treated by Ferarri, the FIA and Max.
By Ron Dennis
#23587
spot on racechick
User avatar
By raithrover
#23601
I just cannot see the Renault mechanics covering their ears and eyes when their new arrival started. More likely vultures around a new piece of meat, picking whatever scraps of info they needed. We await the hearing...
By cir34
#23602
Seems like a similar scenario to what happened at McLaren. Only one or two people knew about, the information was only slightly more significant than what McLaren had, however, to quote Mosley, we're dealing with 'ideas' and there is a chance that these ideas found their way into Renault's car.

The FIA must treat Renault in exactly the same way. If they don't it will only stoke the already-blazing fires of the FIA being in bed with Ferrari and their personal issues with McLaren.



Big difference between what happened at maclaren and what has happened at renault.

at renault an employee who left maclaren brought with him information on a cd or floppy disk or whatever and in his head. unless it can be proven that the reason he was employed by renault was the information that was on the cd , because the information that is in his head cannot be erased renault have done nothing wrong.

in the case of maclaren when it seemed that an employee of ferrari had passed information to an employee of maclaren the fia just gave maclaren a slap on the wrist, when it came out that employees of maclaren were actually asking for the information and trying to learn from it what choice did the fia have . they were trying to cheat.

what really surprises me of the renault incident is how can an employee with sensitive information go from one team to another in the middle of a season. you would think that the teams would try to protect themselves at least during the season. once a season is over people change teams and they take their knowledge with them but during the middle of the season just seems to me to be asking for problems
User avatar
By darwin dali
#23608
I doubt McLaren would have done anything about Renault having that info were it not for the way they have been treated by Ferarri, the FIA and Max.


And how should Ferrari feel about McLaren with them signing a 'Trust Agreement' with Ferrari all the while McLaren already knew what was going on with Coughlan? McLaren epitomizes hypocrisy.
User avatar
By onelapdown
#23610
I doubt McLaren would have done anything about Renault having that info were it not for the way they have been treated by Ferarri, the FIA and Max.


And how should Ferrari feel about McLaren with them signing a 'Trust Agreement' with Ferrari all the while McLaren already knew what was going on with Coughlan? McLaren epitomizes hypocrisy.

As far as I am aware that is totally inaccurate.
User avatar
By McLaren Fan
#23612
Seems like a similar scenario to what happened at McLaren. Only one or two people knew about, the information was only slightly more significant than what McLaren had, however, to quote Mosley, we're dealing with 'ideas' and there is a chance that these ideas found their way into Renault's car.

The FIA must treat Renault in exactly the same way. If they don't it will only stoke the already-blazing fires of the FIA being in bed with Ferrari and their personal issues with McLaren.



Big difference between what happened at maclaren and what has happened at renault.

at renault an employee who left maclaren brought with him information on a cd or floppy disk or whatever and in his head. unless it can be proven that the reason he was employed by renault was the information that was on the cd , because the information that is in his head cannot be erased renault have done nothing wrong.

in the case of maclaren when it seemed that an employee of ferrari had passed information to an employee of maclaren the fia just gave maclaren a slap on the wrist, when it came out that employees of maclaren were actually asking for the information and trying to learn from it what choice did the fia have . they were trying to cheat.

what really surprises me of the renault incident is how can an employee with sensitive information go from one team to another in the middle of a season. you would think that the teams would try to protect themselves at least during the season. once a season is over people change teams and they take their knowledge with them but during the middle of the season just seems to me to be asking for problems

Several things. First, the information was known by fifteen people at Renault examined the floppy disks, which included information on the 2007 car. Departments included were research and development, vehicle staff and their designers. Basically, what Renault are accused for at the moment is ten times worse than for what McLaren were penalised. They clearly were trying to cheat.

I would like to retract what I said above: this situation is not similar to the McLaren-Ferrari saga, it's much, much worse.
By cir34
#23620
Seems like a similar scenario to what happened at McLaren. Only one or two people knew about, the information was only slightly more significant than what McLaren had, however, to quote Mosley, we're dealing with 'ideas' and there is a chance that these ideas found their way into Renault's car.

The FIA must treat Renault in exactly the same way. If they don't it will only stoke the already-blazing fires of the FIA being in bed with Ferrari and their personal issues with McLaren.



Big difference between what happened at maclaren and what has happened at renault.

at renault an employee who left maclaren brought with him information on a cd or floppy disk or whatever and in his head. unless it can be proven that the reason he was employed by renault was the information that was on the cd , because the information that is in his head cannot be erased renault have done nothing wrong.


it doesnt matter if it was known by a 100 people. the information was given to them by a employee of their team who had worked previously at mclaren. in the case of mclaren their employees were recieving and asking for information from an employee of ferrari.

in the case of maclaren when it seemed that an employee of ferrari had passed information to an employee of maclaren the fia just gave maclaren a slap on the wrist, when it came out that employees of maclaren were actually asking for the information and trying to learn from it what choice did the fia have . they were trying to cheat.

what really surprises me of the renault incident is how can an employee with sensitive information go from one team to another in the middle of a season. you would think that the teams would try to protect themselves at least during the season. once a season is over people change teams and they take their knowledge with them but during the middle of the season just seems to me to be asking for problems

Several things. First, the information was known by fifteen people at Renault examined the floppy disks, which included information on the 2007 car. Departments included were research and development, vehicle staff and their designers. Basically, what Renault are accused for at the moment is ten times worse than for what McLaren were penalised. They clearly were trying to cheat.

I would like to retract what I said above: this situation is not similar to the McLaren-Ferrari saga, it's much, much worse.
By cir34
#23624
Seems like a similar scenario to what happened at McLaren. Only one or two people knew about, the information was only slightly more significant than what McLaren had, however, to quote Mosley, we're dealing with 'ideas' and there is a chance that these ideas found their way into Renault's car.

The FIA must treat Renault in exactly the same way. If they don't it will only stoke the already-blazing fires of the FIA being in bed with Ferrari and their personal issues with McLaren.



Big difference between what happened at maclaren and what has happened at renault.

at renault an employee who left maclaren brought with him information on a cd or floppy disk or whatever and in his head. unless it can be proven that the reason he was employed by renault was the information that was on the cd , because the information that is in his head cannot be erased renault have done nothing wrong.

in the case of maclaren when it seemed that an employee of ferrari had passed information to an employee of maclaren the fia just gave maclaren a slap on the wrist, when it came out that employees of maclaren were actually asking for the information and trying to learn from it what choice did the fia have . they were trying to cheat.

what really surprises me of the renault incident is how can an employee with sensitive information go from one team to another in the middle of a season. you would think that the teams would try to protect themselves at least during the season. once a season is over people change teams and they take their knowledge with them but during the middle of the season just seems to me to be asking for problems

Several things. First, the information was known by fifteen people at Renault examined the floppy disks, which included information on the 2007 car. Departments included were research and development, vehicle staff and their designers. Basically, what Renault are accused for at the moment is ten times worse than for what McLaren were penalised. They clearly were trying to cheat.

I would like to retract what I said above: this situation is not similar to the McLaren-Ferrari saga, it's much, much worse.


it doesnt matter if it was known by a 100 people. the information was given to them by a employee of their team who had worked previously at mclaren. in the case of mclaren their employees were recieving and asking for information from an employee of ferrari.
By Ron Dennis
#23625
you think?
User avatar
By onelapdown
#23626
it doesnt matter if it was known by a 100 people. the information was given to them by a employee of their team who had worked previously at mclaren. in the case of mclaren their employees were recieving and asking for information from an employee of ferrari.


The only material difference in my opinion is that the first case involved two people giving each other information, while the second involved one person bringing information with them. If the Renault transgression is proven, the offence is the same.
User avatar
By darwin dali
#23627
I doubt McLaren would have done anything about Renault having that info were it not for the way they have been treated by Ferarri, the FIA and Max.


And how should Ferrari feel about McLaren with them signing a 'Trust Agreement' with Ferrari all the while McLaren already knew what was going on with Coughlan? McLaren epitomizes hypocrisy.

As far as I am aware that is totally inaccurate.


http://www.f1complete.com/content/view/5519/617/

Ron Dufus may not have been aware of what had been going on, but others in the upper management (e.g., Whitmarsh) knew.
User avatar
By McLaren Fan
#23636
it doesnt matter if it was known by a 100 people. the information was given to them by a employee of their team who had worked previously at mclaren. in the case of mclaren their employees were recieving and asking for information from an employee of ferrari.

Ferrari gave a McLaren employee the information. An ex-McLaren employee took information he was not meant to and gave it to Renault who shared it about their team. To me, that's far worse than McLaren's offense, especially given that the information Renault possessed wasn't know by everybody buy and large down the pit lane.

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