Spygate occurred when a former Ferrari employee, Nigel Stepney involved a McLaren Senior Engineer, Mike Coughlan in allegations of technical information theft.
Spygate was initiated after Ross Brawn left his role as Sporting Director for Ferrari. This opened up a spot Stepney wanted. Instead, Stefano Domenicali was chosen. This lead to the disgruntled the Ferrari mechanic, Stepney beginning this whole ordeal.
To summarise, Stepney shared a blueprint of Ferrari’s 2007 car specification with over 800 pages of technical information. By giving this to the Chief Mechanic at McLaren, Stepney committed corporate espionage.
This was all revealed when Stepney’s wife took the documents to a photocopying shop. However, by chance the employee happened to be a Ferrari fan and was the whistle blower for this espionage. Domenicali (who was Ferrari’s Sporting Director at the time) received an email regarding this technical property theft. The Italian police got involved, as well as an English law firm, to help them solve this industrial espionage.
A formal complaint was filed during the 2007 US Grand Prix race weekend in June. This commenced a criminal investigation relating to irregularities discovered prior to the Monaco Grand Prix.
Two FIA hearings later, McLaren was fined $100 million. The team also had their Constructors’ Championship points revoked. Inevitably, Stepney was fired.
Written by Frankie.
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