McLaren summoned to FIA hearing

The FIA has decided to call McLaren to appear before the World Motor Sports Council on July 26th, 2007, to answer questions about the alleged possetion of confidential Ferrari documents. Last week McLaren suspended there Chief designer Mike Coughlin after a 700 page document belonging to Ferrari was discovered during a serch of his home.

For this to happen the FIA must believe that McLaren are in breach of Atricle 151c which deals with "any fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally.

A McLaren statement read: "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 co-operation 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."

If McLaren are found in breach of Article 151c the FIA could fine or even disqulify the team. To impose a ban, the FIA would need to prove that Coughlan made use of the information he had - either in accommodating Ferrari design features on the McLaren or in adapting McLaren strategy in light of what he knew about Ferrari. Should that happen, Hamilton and Alonso could be thrown out of the world championship.

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