MAY 28, 2003

Spies...

There is a bit of a kerfuffle going on in F1 circles following a story in the German magazine AUTO MOTOR UND SPORT that a Ferrari engineer has been selling information to another team. We heard the story six weeks ago but, because of the legal implications and the difficulty of proving any claims, decided not to run it. As we understand it, the story is rather more complicated than the published version with several teams apparently involved and information seemingly passing between all of them. In most cases it appears that not all of the teams know that they have been involved. This is not because they are trying to cover up the truth but rather because the transfer of information has been going on without the knowledge of team principals. There is, however, no doubt that one team (not Ferrari) has discovered an engineer with incriminating evidence in his laptop computer. We know that this team has considered taking legal action but at the moment there is enough evidence to create suspicions but not enough to guarantee a conviction. Investigations are continuing but until there is a solid case, everyone involved is denying that there is a story.

There is a story but until more information is available (if ever) there is not much that can be done about it.