Post by Hammer on Oct 28, 2016 9:45:11 GMT
So...here I was waiting for a client and again he was late and I visited the usual bookstore to read up some juicy bits from a MAX MOSLEY book. A great 15minute read. Most of the story, we know already but here it is in complete from his perspective and I think highly believable since he was on the inside and can gain nothing from lying.
So McLaren had the 700+ pages of Ferrari data, handed over crisply by Nigel Stepney (RIP) of Ferrari....which Coughlan had asked his wife to burn those pages into discs. An F1 fan (the odds of it) who works in the copy shop alerted Ferrari via email.
Ferrari, furious that their own employee is a spy then alerted the authorities. McLaren were brought up to the stands, and this is where Mosley reiterates a few times....should've come clean, and they could've been let go with a hefty fine and no more drama. However, McLaren kept denying and kept repeating that Coughlan was the only one to be in privy of the info, no one else knew about it. And despite being pressured, Mosley said if they had brought the case up to a civil court, McLaren would've won the case easy with 'expensive lawyers'. So he had to let it go, since concrete proof was missing. McLaren also produced a document with most of the engineers signed on saying they have no infomation and not aware reg the documents.
Mosley states that much earlier in the season, Ferrari was operating with some thingamajig in their electronic systems McLaren reported and the FIA found out and told Ferrari to stop using this thing. And he remembers wondering how did McLaren find out about this little nugget. Anyway,
So both Luca and Sergio had called up Mosley to whine about McLaren being off the hook, and Mosley had to explain he had run out of options and McLaren had the upper hand. They had to let it go. The case was pretty much done and dusted.
Few races later, who sparks up the issue again but the FONZ. The bitter old gimp of a FONZ, while getting his ass handed to him by the troublesome rookie, had opened his big mouth and informed his sugar daddy Briatore that there were EMAILS which could be used as proof to fuck up McLaren. Briatore informed Luca, Luca informed Mosley. Mosley then basically sends a threat to three people; FONZ, Lewis, and De La Rosa.....if you don't provide these emails to us, your F1 license is at stake if found out later. Duly, they provided what they had....and the FIA now had solid proof and brought up the matter again. On top of it, they hired investigators to raid Coughlans home, and disclose all the SMS info between Stepney and Coughlan. Apparently, the number of SMSes spiked massively during race weekends, they can't see content, only date/time of SMSes. So McLaren had info not only on the documents, but also on race strategy and tips and tricks that Ferrari would be deploying during the race weekends.
Side note: I always thought McLaren were particularly brilliant that year...a few of their pit stop timings and race strategy which completely outfoxed Ferrari made me proud. Well, Lol.
So....now that McLaren were under fire again, Mosley had ruled along with few others to give the team a TWO YEAR BAN. He had actually voted for this, but most of the others said they didn't want the 2007 WDC ruined and also a massive burden to the McLaren company since up to 1200 people would be jobless with immediate effect. In the end it was Bernie's idea to levy a 100mill fine on them. And This 100mill included any of the prize money McLaren would get being 2nd in the WCC (apparently 40% of this money was handed out to everyone below 2nd place, 60% by the FIA for 'other ventures to improve motorsport'). He also added, "happily, Kimi went on to win the WDC that year winning by a single point from Hamilton".
Mosley then goes on to state he never had anything against Ron Dennis, he felt he was annoying in meetings where he'd only look out for his teams interests but that's normal for team bosses and there was never a 'witchhunt' as the media always reported. He said most of the drama was simply unnecessary if McLaren had just owned up at the beginning. And he added Bernie joked that 5% of the 100mill was a fine for the actual crime, and 95% of it was for Ron being a c***.
Mosley also said McLaren would've profited massively for 2008 and managed to win the WDC so in effect, it felt like they had bought all that advantage with the 100million. Which he still feels till today was a cheap let off.
Sincerely,
So McLaren had the 700+ pages of Ferrari data, handed over crisply by Nigel Stepney (RIP) of Ferrari....which Coughlan had asked his wife to burn those pages into discs. An F1 fan (the odds of it) who works in the copy shop alerted Ferrari via email.
Ferrari, furious that their own employee is a spy then alerted the authorities. McLaren were brought up to the stands, and this is where Mosley reiterates a few times....should've come clean, and they could've been let go with a hefty fine and no more drama. However, McLaren kept denying and kept repeating that Coughlan was the only one to be in privy of the info, no one else knew about it. And despite being pressured, Mosley said if they had brought the case up to a civil court, McLaren would've won the case easy with 'expensive lawyers'. So he had to let it go, since concrete proof was missing. McLaren also produced a document with most of the engineers signed on saying they have no infomation and not aware reg the documents.
Mosley states that much earlier in the season, Ferrari was operating with some thingamajig in their electronic systems McLaren reported and the FIA found out and told Ferrari to stop using this thing. And he remembers wondering how did McLaren find out about this little nugget. Anyway,
So both Luca and Sergio had called up Mosley to whine about McLaren being off the hook, and Mosley had to explain he had run out of options and McLaren had the upper hand. They had to let it go. The case was pretty much done and dusted.
Few races later, who sparks up the issue again but the FONZ. The bitter old gimp of a FONZ, while getting his ass handed to him by the troublesome rookie, had opened his big mouth and informed his sugar daddy Briatore that there were EMAILS which could be used as proof to fuck up McLaren. Briatore informed Luca, Luca informed Mosley. Mosley then basically sends a threat to three people; FONZ, Lewis, and De La Rosa.....if you don't provide these emails to us, your F1 license is at stake if found out later. Duly, they provided what they had....and the FIA now had solid proof and brought up the matter again. On top of it, they hired investigators to raid Coughlans home, and disclose all the SMS info between Stepney and Coughlan. Apparently, the number of SMSes spiked massively during race weekends, they can't see content, only date/time of SMSes. So McLaren had info not only on the documents, but also on race strategy and tips and tricks that Ferrari would be deploying during the race weekends.
Side note: I always thought McLaren were particularly brilliant that year...a few of their pit stop timings and race strategy which completely outfoxed Ferrari made me proud. Well, Lol.
So....now that McLaren were under fire again, Mosley had ruled along with few others to give the team a TWO YEAR BAN. He had actually voted for this, but most of the others said they didn't want the 2007 WDC ruined and also a massive burden to the McLaren company since up to 1200 people would be jobless with immediate effect. In the end it was Bernie's idea to levy a 100mill fine on them. And This 100mill included any of the prize money McLaren would get being 2nd in the WCC (apparently 40% of this money was handed out to everyone below 2nd place, 60% by the FIA for 'other ventures to improve motorsport'). He also added, "happily, Kimi went on to win the WDC that year winning by a single point from Hamilton".
Mosley then goes on to state he never had anything against Ron Dennis, he felt he was annoying in meetings where he'd only look out for his teams interests but that's normal for team bosses and there was never a 'witchhunt' as the media always reported. He said most of the drama was simply unnecessary if McLaren had just owned up at the beginning. And he added Bernie joked that 5% of the 100mill was a fine for the actual crime, and 95% of it was for Ron being a c***.
Mosley also said McLaren would've profited massively for 2008 and managed to win the WDC so in effect, it felt like they had bought all that advantage with the 100million. Which he still feels till today was a cheap let off.
Sincerely,
