Renault charged by FIA
Eurosport - Thu, 08 Nov 20:01:00 2007
Former champions Renault have been summoned to appear before Formula One's governing body on a charge of having McLaren technical information in their possession.

More StoriesMcLaren play down "raid" reports
The International Automobile Federation (FIA) said that representatives of the French team had been summoned to a hearing of the World Motor Sport Council, Formula One's top body, in Monaco on December 6.

The charges spanned a period from September 2006 to October 2007 -- the final four races of last year when Renault won the drivers' and constructors' titles as well as this year's entire championship.

The FIA said in a statement that the information allegedly included the layout and critical dimensions of the McLaren car as well as details of the fuelling system, gear assembly, oil cooling system and hydraulic control system.

It also mentioned a "novel suspension component used by the 2006 and 2007 McLaren F1 cars".

The announcement threatened to heap more negative publicity on a sport still feeling the effects of a major spying controversy involving Ferrari and McLaren that overshadowed much of the year.

McLaren were stripped of all their constructors' points and fined $100 million, minus prize money for the season that would have accrued, after being found to have a dossier of Ferrari technical information in their possession.

The charge faced by Renault, who were constructors' champions last year and in 2005 but failed to win a race this season, concerned the same article 151c of the international sporting code.

Renault said they had nothing to hide.

"Ever since this matter was brought to our attention, we have acted with complete transparency towards McLaren and the FIA, and we will continue to do so," the team said in a statement.

There was no immediate comment from McLaren.

Allegations about McLaren information falling into Renault's hands emerged shortly before a September hearing in Paris to consider new evidence in the Ferrari spy saga.

FIA president Max Mosley told reporters at the Belgian Grand Prix that same month that the governing body was waiting for a formal complaint from McLaren.

"We have had a dossier from Renault which doesn't look particularly damning, but then again you wouldn't expect it to," he said at the time.

"We are waiting to see what comes from McLaren.

"It's allegedly an employee who took some floppy discs with him, but we must wait and see what comes out," added Mosley, who said McLaren had sent experts into Renault to look at their computer system with the French team's agreement.

Another source told Reuters that McLaren had been tipped off by another employee leaving the French team for the Mercedes-powered outfit.

However, Renault team boss Flavio Briatore was adamant in Spa that the case could not be compared to the McLaren one: "If somebody tells me it's the same, I sue," he had said.

The summons comes at a particularly sensitive time for Renault, who are hoping to convince their former double world champion Fernando Alonso to return to them for next season after he split with McLaren last week.

Alonso was a key figure in the McLaren spying controversy, providing incriminating e-mails to the governing body that allowed them to reopen the investigation after initially clearing the team.

Reuters

specijalno za clanove sa osjetljivim ocima

ovo kao spec monohromatsko izdanje

ovo kao spec monohromatsko izdanje  

ma nesto mi se srce smeksalo danas

Renault suspend engineer
Eurosport - Fri, 09 Nov 16:39:00 2007
Former champions Renault hit back at allegations of spying, saying their cars were untainted by any data from Formula One rivals McLaren.

More StoriesRenault to co-operate with FIA
They also said that a former McLaren engineer who joined them in September last year had been suspended as soon as they became aware that he had brought confidential technical information with him.

Renault were summoned on Thursday to appear before a hearing of the governing body in Monaco on December 6 to answer a charge of unauthorised possession of McLaren data.

Mercedes-powered McLaren were themselves stripped of all their constructors' points this season and fined $100 millionfor having highly sensitive Ferrari information.

Renault named their suspended employee as Phil Mackereth and said they had been made aware of the problem on September 6, the Thursday before the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

It said the information had been "contained on old-style floppy discs and included copies of some McLaren engineering drawings and some technical spreadsheets.

"This information was loaded at the request of Mr Mackereth onto his personal directory on the Renault F1 Team file system," it added.

"This was done without the knowledge of anyone in authority in the team."

Renault said the information had been cleansed from the computer systems as soon as the matter was brought to their attention and a formal investigation started.

McLaren and the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) were kept fully informed throughout while the discs were impounded and returned to McLaren via lawyers.

"Our formal investigation showed that early in his employment with Renault, Mr Mackereth made some of our engineers aware of parts of this information in the form of a few reduced scale engineering drawings," the team said.

"These drawings covered four basic systems as used by McLaren and were: the internal layout of the fuel tank, the basic layout of the gear clusters, a tuned mass damper and a suspension damper.

"Subsequent witness statements from the engineers involved have categorically stated that, having been briefly shown these drawings, none of this information was used to influence design decisions relating to the Renault car."

Renault won both the constructors' and drivers' championships in 2006 but lost performance mid-season after the FIA banned their mass damper system.

Renault said the McLaren drawing of the mass damper had no value because the system had been declared illegal before Mackereth joined.

"The suspension damper drawing hinted that the McLaren design might be similarly considered illegal and a subsequent clarification from the FIA confirmed this based upon our crude interpretation of the concept," it said.

The French team, who failed to win a race this season, said they had cooperated fully with both McLaren and the FIA and were confident in the outcome of the hearing.

They had also invited McLaren's independent experts to assess the team's computer systems and inspect the cars and design records "to demonstrate that this unfortunate incident has not in any way influenced the design of the cars."

Reuters

Ej ma kazu ovi iz Renaulta nismo mi majke mi nista kopirali ,a posto su oni kopirali McLaren a ope Mclaren Ferrari ispade da je na Renou i Ferrarijevih stvari hehe *ebo lud zbunjenog

a otuda Alonsu 2 titule

HEHHe ja dobro si