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McLaren charged by FIA over Ferrari spying accusations

The McLaren Formula One team was charged by the sport's governing body on Thursday with unauthorized possession of secret Ferrari documents.

McLaren was summoned to appear before the FIA's world motor sport council in Paris on July 26 to explain how it gained possession of the documents, including information that can be used to design, engineer, build, check, test, develop and run this year's Ferrari F1 car.

The case reached the High Court in London on Wednesday when McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan, who was suspended by his team last week when documents were found in his house, agreed to tell Ferrari how he got hold of its design secrets.

Coughlan has been linked to Ferrari's head of performance Nigel Stepney, who has already been fired by the team for allegedly sending the 780-page technical document to Coughlan.

Stepney has denied it, although Ferrari won a court order to search the Coughlans' home and the documents were found, along with computers which are set to be examined by experts.

Ferrari has also taken legal action in Italy against Stepney.

McLaren team chief Ron Dennis has always maintained his team had not broken any rules.

McLaren said in a statement on Thursday it was "extremely disappointed" by the decision.

"Whilst McLaren wishes to continue its full cooperation with any investigation into this matter, it does wish to make it very clear that the documents and confidential information were only in the possession of one currently suspended employee on an unauthorized basis and no element of it has been used in relation to McLaren's Formula 1 cars," it said.

The FIA did not say what sanctions could be taken against McLaren if found guilty of breaking the rules although, theoretically, the team could face a points deduction or expulsion from the championship.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton leads the drivers' standings with 70 points ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso (58) with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen (52) and Felipe Massa (51) third and fourth. In the constructors' championship, McLaren has 128 points, and Ferrari is second with 103.
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