On the Marbles: Stepneygate
July 6th 2007 15:09
‘Stepneygate’ seems to share quite a bit with the original Watergate crisis, but will it follow it right to the tragic end? Ron Dennis would certainly hope not.
F1 is going bananas right now.
The absolute maelstrom of activity taking place is akin to the departing traffic jam that takes place after a grand prix at Silverstone.
But the spectators have not yet even arrived at the track for Sunday’s race and already the complex is congested with drama, controversy, media attention and of course, rumour.
There was always going to be a media storm pelting Britain leading up to July 8, but it is not young Lewis Hamilton who is soaking all the attention, rather it is the spotlight shy techies, Nigel Stepney (formerly) of Ferrari and Mike Coughlan of McLaren who have stolen the scene.
It seems that the only way to pry the British press away from Hamilton, is to simply whip up some intriguing saga about spies, sabotage and a couple of head engineers from rival teams and name it “Stepneygate”
For once, a scandal in F1 seemingly deserves to have the word ‘gate’ fixed to the end of the subject in question, as this particular saga almost mirrors the whole Watergate drama.
Now, this story is still very young, and the details are being drip-fed at a very gradual rate, but there way things are headed, F1 may well be on the verge of it’s very own Watergate.
For those who are unaware, Watergate was the name of a hotel in Washington in which a huge scandal emerged in the mid 1970’s.
After years of investigation, it was discovered that the U.S. President, Richard Nixon, was ultimately behind an attempt at espionage, which involved the bugging of offices of political rivals.
In the end, after court rulings had sent many high-ranking officials in the White House packing, Nixon resigned, before suffering the indignity of an almost imminent impeachment.
What nailed Nixon in the end, was not the actual bugging of his rivals’ offices, but the sloppy attempts to cover it up once the media grabbed hold of the story.
Now, assuming you are up to date with the Stepney saga (under-rock dwellers see here), consider the potential Nixon to be McLaren boss Ron Dennis.
Now I’m not saying that Dennis is at all behind this, however, McLaren are in very hot water, and he knows it.
The latest murmurs have a photocopying shop assistant as the shady ‘third party’ who tipped Ferrari off about McLaren chief designer, Mike Coughlan’s possession of classified documents.
The story goes that the man (no doubt a Tifosi) spotted the Ferrari badge emblazoned upon a bundle of important looking documents that were being photocopied by an unnamed McLaren employee, and concerned, he notified the appropriate authorities.
Dennis was incredibly quick to point out that he and McLaren had no idea about these documents, and he still stands firmly by those claims.
He also strongly insists that his team have not benefited from the information contained within these documents, and even Lewis Hamilton has been drawn to comment that the car he drives is “all ours."
However, an equally firm level of denial is being heard on the other side, from Stepney’s camp, after the Englishman was interrogated almost immediately after touching down in Italy from his overseas holiday.
Nixon was equally vocal about his innocence right up until the end, but as more members of his administration crumbled beneath him, his conviction wavered.
Dennis has already lost a deputy in Mike Coughlan, the man who has been an integral part of the design team, especially since Adrian Newey’s deferral to Red Bull in 2006, and now there are whispers that there are others involved.
The situation that Coughlan has put Dennis and McLaren in is very hazardous.
The onus on the team is to prove that the intellectual property belonging to Ferrari, and found in the dwelling of a senior McLaren engineer, was not used in any way by McLaren.
This is a very, very difficult spot to be in, as the extent of the knowledge dissemination within the team may not just relate to specific parts of a car, but also information relating to Ferrari’s mode of operation, and other data that could be used in McLaren’s own development.
Whether or not Dennis knew about this will not be known for some time, however, there is no doubt that the events have shaken him.
The McLaren boss arrived at Silverstone on Friday to a scrum of microphones, not enquiring about Lewis as was previously expected, but about the precarious position McLaren are sitting.
"It has been a difficult two or three days, especially for me," Dennis said with a wavering tone.”
"My personal integrity is very important to me and my company's integrity is even more important,” he said.
"There is no way anything incorrect would ever happen in our team. Thanks," he finished before trudging off to his team’s towering new ‘Brand Centre’ motorhome.
Speculation is of course a perilous practise, however, knowledge can be very dangerous.
Especially for McLaren.
| 44 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
