In a dramatic new twist to the Ferrari espionage saga, FIA President Max Mosley has said that last week's verdict by the World Motor sport council will go to appeal.
Mosley made the announcement in an exchange of correspondence with Liuigi Macaluso, President of the Italian motorsport authority the CSAI. In his letter to the FIA President, Macaluso was critical of the WMSC's decision not to penalise McLaren, despite being satisfied that the British team had been in possession of confidential material belonging to its Italian rivals.
Having been invited to last week's hearing as 'observers', Mosley concedes that the outcome of the hearing may have been different had Ferrari been able to give their side of events.
However, the exchange sees Macaluso claim that several of McLaren's top team representatives were aware of the Ferrari information over several months, a charge which Mosley concedes would be "very serious".
The Englishman also admits that using the Italian team's technical knowledge to give the McLaren cars an illegitimate advantage over the entire field, coutesy of detailed knowledge of Ferrari's technical strategies, would give McLaren significant and unfair advantages over the Maranello team at every race.
In his letter, Macaluso writes:
"We must confess that we find it quite difficult to justify how a team has not been penalised while it has been found in breach of clause 151c of the International Sporting Code. Indeed, this is probably the most fundamental provision of our sport. In the present case the infringement is very serious since it has been assessed that the team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes has repeatedly breached such provision, over several months, through several top team representatives, to the detriment of its most direct competitor and therefore to its direct or indirect advantage and knowing that such infringement would still be ongoing would it had not been fortuitously discovered.
The very fact that the breach of clause 151c has been assessed by the World Motor Sport Council means that all conditions of such breach were fulfilled. We cannot see why additional conditions would have to be demonstrated in order for a penalty to be inflicted. The recent history of Formula One offers several examples of cases in which a party was inflicted a severe penalty because of a breach of clause 151c, without the subject matter of such breach having been used by a team or having had any effect on the outcome of the competition.
We fear that the decision of the World Motor Sport Council could create a precedent which, at this level of the sport and stage of the competition, would be highly inappropriate and detrimental for the sport.
In any event, in view of the aforesaid, we respectfully suggest that you, in your capacity as President of the FIA, in accordance with the powers granted to you by clause 23 paragraph 1 of the FIA Statues and article 1 of the CIA rules, submit the matter to the International Court of Appeal of the FIA.
This would also enable out license holder, Ferrari, on behalf of which we would take part to the proceedings, and perhaps other teams as well, to fully submit their position and protect their rights. In effect, Ferrari - as at least two other teams - attended the World Motor Sport Council in Paris as observers and not as a party. Accordingly, they did not have a full right of audience. As, however, Ferrari in any event had been seriously and directly affected by McLaren's behaviour, we deem it appropriate that Ferrari (directly or through ourselves) enjoys full rights of due process which would be the case in accordance with the rules applicable in front of the International Court of Appeal."
