FERRARI have shown the door to former technical manager Nigel Stepney. He has been accused of passing secrets to Formula 1 rivals.
“Ferrari confirm that we have brought an action against Nigel Stepney and a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes technical engineer in a court in Modena regarding the theft of technical information,” said a spokesman for the Italian team.
McLaren said they found out only recently of the involvement of their employee.
“McLaren became aware on 3 July, 2007 that a senior member was the subject of a Ferrari investigation regarding the receipt of technical information. The team has learnt that this individual had personally received a package of technical information from a Ferrari employee at the end of April. Whilst McLaren has no involvement in the matter and condemns such actions, it will fully co-operate with any investigation,”
The McLaren employee was suspended after Ferrari, who announced earlier in the day that they had dismissed Stepney, took legal action in England and obtained a search warrant.
said Ferrari’s spokesman.“A search was carried out of the [McLaren] engineer’s house, where we found this information”
