Mosley: « McLaren could lose more points if… »

The FIA president acknowledges that if McLaren Mercedes presents ideas from Ferrari next year, penalties will fall again and again. This is the aftermath of the espionage scandal that shook the F1 world this year.

Max Mosley suggested that McLaren might be tempted in 2008 to implement some Ferrari ideas in the design and technology of their cars.

The team was excluded from the 2007 Constructors’ Championship and was fined $100 million, which was later reduced to $50 million.

The World Motor Sport Council found that the British team was in possession of confidential information from Ferrari, which had been transmitted between the disgraced chief designer Mike Coughlan and Nigel Stepney.

As part of the verdict, the FIA also announced that it will monitor McLaren in 2008 to ensure that none of the data found in Ferrari’s documentation ends up on the silver arrows.

Mosley stated that the experts will ensure that no intellectual property belonging to Ferrari ends up on the MP4-23.

« This is in the hands of the chief designer at the time of the design of the 2008 McLaren. The difficulty is that you are not going to find an actual detail on the McLaren that was designed by Ferrari. »

« You can find ideas because we are at a level of technology in this motorsport where many things can be undertaken. If the idea is given to the chief designer, he will make a component using that idea, which does not relate at all to the original component. » he said on BBC radio.

« We will therefore look for the ideas. The investigation will be thorough, it will use experts, and we will do everything possible to ensure that McLaren does not have any element of Ferrari’s intellectual property. Otherwise, we will have to take action. »

« It will not necessarily be a ban on operating. It would be more judicious for them to be assigned a penalty. »

« Finding something will not be easy. On the other hand, there are resources we will deploy that will give us as great a chance as possible of uncovering this misconduct, » concluded Mosley.