JULY 3, 2007

McLaren suspends senior staff man

McLaren issued a statement this afternoon saying that "a senior member of its technical organisation was the subject of a Ferrari investigation regarding the receipt of technical information' and that McLaren had only discovered about it on that day. The team added that the person concerned had personally received a package of technical information from a Ferrari employee at the end of April.

McLaren went on to say that it has no involvement in the matter and condemned it adding that it will fully cooperate with any investigation. The individual involved has been suspended by the team, pending "a full and proper investigation of the matter".

The team says it will make no further comment on the subject.

What is clear from this is that McLaren cledarly understands that this is a serious problem and that there is no doubt about the allegations. No-one would suspend a senior member of staff if there was any doubt. Thus there must be clear evidence of what has been going on.

By not naming names, McLaren has, to some extent, added fuel to the fire as there will now be a lot of work amongst the F1 journalists to try to find out who is involved.