WIRED magazine’s website has an excellent article written by Mark Seal about ‘Stepney-gate’, the spy scandal that embroiled Formula One in 2007. It involved the leaking of vital information between Ferrari and McLaren, principally from Ferrari’s Nigel Stepney to McLaren’s Michael Coughlan. The article explores Ron Dennis’ dislike of Team Red as well as the apparently innocent, if ultimately foolish, errand that brought Ron Dennis’ McLaren team to its knees. One of the introductory paragraphs reads:
“It was June 2007 in sleepy Surrey County, and Coughlan, a statuesque blonde, sauntered through the door of the shop holding a sheaf of 780 pages. Scan them onto two CDs, she told the clerk, a forgettable middle-aged guy in a forgettable office park in the middle of nowhere. Nothing strange about the order, unless you happened to be a Formula One fan and happened to take a close look at the material: schematic drawings, technical reports, pictures, and financial information — enough insider dope to design a Formula One race car. Each page was emblazoned with one of the most famous logos in the world: the prancing black horse of Ferrari.”
Click HERE to read the rest of the article.
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[…] many ways this is a far worse situation for the sport than the infamous ‘Stepneygate’ spy saga from 2007. The outcome of that saw the McLaren team heavily fined and removed from the […]