Nigel Stepney has become a household name now, thanks to his recent escapades spying on the Ferrari team. But when the muck fell on McLaren , damage control started, here is a statement from the McLaren team on the whole controversy :

“Following our statement of 3rd July 2007, McLaren has completed a thorough investigation and can confirm that no Ferrari intellectual property has been passed to any other members of the team or incorporated into its cars.

“McLaren has in the meanwhile openly disclosed these matters to the FIA and Ferrari and sought to satisfy any concerns that have arisen from this matter. In order to address some of the speculation McLaren has invited the FIA to conduct a full review of its cars to satisfy itself that the team has not benefited from any intellectual property of another competitor.”

McLaren further added that no more comments will be made on this issue.

What hits me is that , the kind of information Ferrari claims Nigel passed onto McLaren is really valuable. And what incentive would Nigel Stepney have had apart from money in passing that information to Mike Coughlan of McLaren. So Coughlan must have paid big money to get that information, and its highly improbable he would have spent from his pocket. So it really does put a question mark on involvement of other McLaren staff possibly even Ron Dennis who has so far claimed ignorance in the matter. Lets see how the Stepney-gate saga further unfolds !

P.S. And Italians are furiously mad at the English from what i can see, just removed a few inappropriate comments on the English by a few Italian Ferrari supporters. I am sure they meant no harm, just got carried away in emotion. Just hope they act friendly at this week’s Silverstone Grand Prix.