Motor Sport: Mclaren Could Be Expelled From Title Race

McLaren may face expulsion from this year's formula one world championship, destroying Lewis Hamilton's title challenge, if they are found guilty of industrial espionage at a meeting of the FIA world motor sport council to which they have been summoned on Thursday July 26.

In the latest twist to the alleged spying controversy, McLaren team representatives have been called to the governing body's headquarters to answer charges that, between March and July, they had "unauthorized possession of documents and confidential information belonging to Ferrari, including information that could be used to design, engineer, build, check, test, develop and/or run a 2007 Ferrari formula one car". McLaren's chairman, Ron Dennis, has said the documents came into the possession of his chief designer, Mike Coughlan, in April.

McLaren, who at the halfway point of the season hold first and second places in the drivers' championship through the British rookie Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, and are also 25 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors' championship, said last night: "McLaren is extremely disappointed to note that it has been asked by the FIA to answer a charge of being in possession of certain documents and confidential information belonging to Ferrari.

"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 unauthorised basis and no element of it has been used in relation to McLaren's formula one cars."

The FIA charges relate to Ferrari documents found at the Surrey home of Coughlan last week. The Italian team were alerted to their existence by a tip-off from a Woking photocopying shop which had been asked to copy the 780 documents by Coughlan's wife, Trudy, the high court was told this week.

Even before the Coughlans appeared in court on Tuesday to answer questions from Ferrari's lawyers, pressure was building within the Italian team to establish how much McLaren knew about the existence of the data and what decisions were taken about what to do with the material.

It was said in court that McLaren's managing director, Jonathan Neale, had been informed Coughlan was in possession of the data, and the motor sport council will seek to determine when he was told, how quickly he responded and whether he informed Dennis and the chief operating officer, Martin Whitmarsh. Ferrari are taking legal action in Italy against their former engineer Nigel Stepney, who has denied sending the information to Coughlan.

McLaren are being summoned for an alleged breach of article 151c of the international sporting code which covers "any fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motorsport in general". Penalties can range from a reprimand to expulsion from the championship. Under formula one technical regulations, teams must design and manufacture their complete car and this dispute is about whether McLaren could have had any interest in adapting Ferrari technology in the design of their current MP4-22 model.

The council comprises 28 senior representatives of national motorsport authorities and the FIA said it expected "a full house" on July 26. Council members have access to technical consultants and any verdict is reached by an overall majority.