Ron Dennis has admitted that it was Nigel Stepney also who had told McLaren about various features of Ferrari’s 2007 challenger car at Australia. He claimed that Nigel Stepney was actually a whistleblower in this case and had drawn the attention of McLaren to the illegal Ferrari parts. McLaren filed protest with FIA based upon the information supplied to them by Nigel Stepney. The letter was written to the FIA protesting against reports calling McLaren cheaters and thieves.

If Nigel Stepney was indeed a whistleblower, why didnt he goto the FIA , why did he tell McLaren about it. It seems McLaren are now out to save Nigel Stepney , i think so that he wont reveal that McLaren knew about all the data with Mike Coughlan. A genuine whistleblower will never goto a rival company and tell it about the car’s plans. Also one of the devices about which Nigel Stepney had told McLaren was termed legal. So didnt McLaren know about the design of the Ferrari to get detailed clarifications from the FIA.

“It is in the interests of F1 that whistle-blowing is encouraged and not discouraged. If team members think that their identity will be revealed they will not whistle-blow.”

“Were it not for Mr Stepney drawing this illegal device to the attention of McLaren, and McLaren drawing it to the attention of the FIA, there is every reason to suppose that Ferrari would have continued to race with an illegal car.”

“The reason McLaren was not penalised is that the WMSC rightly concluded that it should not be blamed for Mr Coughlan’s actions.

“It based its decision on solid facts and not false innuendo.

“It would be a tragedy if one of the best world championships in years was derailed by the acts of one Ferrari and one McLaren employee acting for their own purposes wholly unconnected with Ferrari or McLaren.

“We believe the Ferrari press releases, the leaks to the Italian press and recent events have been damaging to Formula One as well as McLaren.

“We will naturally present our case before the FIA Court of Appeal as we strongly believe McLaren has done nothing wrong.

“It is our belief justice will prevail and that McLaren will not be penalised.”