Saturday, September 15, 2007

McLaren fined $100m for spying

The McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team was on Thursday night fined $100m – a sum unprecedented in sport – and thrown out of this year’s F1 constructors’ championship by motor sport’s top judicial body.

The FIA World Motor Sport Council took the action after finding the Anglo-German team, which until Thursday night led the competition, guilty of fraudulent behaviour relating to a technical dossier belonging to rival Ferrari which was found in the possession of a senior employee.

In a further humiliation for both the McLaren team and DaimlerChrysler, which owns a 40 per cent stake, the council ruled that McLaren’s cars for the 2008 season would be assessed by independent inspectors to establish whether any secrets contained in the 780-page document had been utilised. (more)