Yesterday at 15:42
As with every great scandal, it is just a matter of time before the
-gate suffix is attached, stemming from the Watergate scandal of
the 1970s that led Richard Nixon to become the only US President to
resign. So, the 2007 espionage crisis that engulfed Formula 1's two
biggest teams was popularly dubbed Spygate with McLaren being hit
with the largest fine in sporting history at $100 million USD, and
losing its Constructors' Championship after being caught with 800
pages of confidential Ferrari technical information. It's a story
with aspects that still seem inconceivable - and still shapes
Formula 1 today through one of the modern powerhouses of Grand Prix
racing. The origins of Spygate The two key, crucial players in
Spygate were Nigel Stepney of Ferrari and old friend Mike Coughlan,
Chief Designer of McLaren. The basics are this. A disgruntled
Stepney felt he had been overlooked for promotion, and so stole
nearly 800 pages of confidential technical information about the
2007 Ferrari - and handed them over to Coughlan, as the two tried
to get jobs with other teams. But what caught Stepney and Coughlan
out was the fact that Coughlan's wife, Trudy tried to make
photocopies of the documents at a shop in Woking. The only trouble
was that the owner was a Ferrari fan, who immediately emailed the
Scuderia with his suspicions... As well as legal proceedings in
both Italy and the UK, the FIA opened an investigation - but
cleared McLaren on the basis that Coughlan had acted alone and the
Ferrari information was not shared with other McLaren staff. Case
closed? Right? That's where Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton come
in. The drivers On paper, pairing the reigning two-time World
Champion with a rookie should normally only have one number driver.
But Hamilton put pay to that when he went dancing around the
outside of Alonso at Turn 1 in his first race at the 2007
Australian Grand Prix, but Monaco was the first fracture in the
pipe that would turn nuclear. Hamilton was effectively waved off by
Ron Dennis for chasing Alonso for the win, with an easy one-two in
the bag, and was not happy. But Dennis, a veteran of handling
prickly driver pairings (Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost would like to
say hello), misjudged Alonso, with the Spanish driver taking
Dennis's comment of calling Hamilton off as an insult to his
perceived number one status. It bubbled away through the summer,
but erupted in Hungary qualifying with the famous 'block' in Q3 by
Alonso on Hamilton. Hamilton had refused to cede position during
the fuel-burn laps and so Alonso promptly held him just enough to
allow himself to set pole position and deny Hamilton a final flying
lap. Alonso was docked five places on the grid, while McLaren's
Constructors' points were wiped out for the race but an argument
between Alonso and Dennis reignited Spygate, during which Alonso
threatened Dennis with revealing new information about Spygate to
the FIA, also making a demand. For more than a decade, what
transpired was known only to a select few, but was revealed by BBC
Sport in 2018, with Alonso demanding McLaren ensure Hamilton ran
out of fuel in the race. Dennis immediately conferred with trusted
number two Martin Whitmarsh and informed FIA President Max Mosley
with Alonso retracting his comments later that Sunday morning.
Dennis informed Mosley of Alonso's claim about more information,
but the FIA boss was already aware and so re-opened the
investigation. It was during this hearing that McLaren received the
$100 million fine, but crucially, with a three-way title battle
bubbling away nicely, Alonso and Hamilton kept their Drivers'
points, much to good cop to Mosley's bad cop Bernie Ecclestone's
delight... As Alonso feared, McLaren would end up losing the title
to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, and left 2007 empty-handed, having
been set to win the Constructors' in their own right by nine
points. Legend has it that Mosley told Dennis that $5 million of
the fine was for McLaren's actions, and the remaining $95 million
for him being foolish, although Mosley apparently described it in
far fruitier four-letter terms. What happened next? Stepney was
effectively blackballed by the FIA and was struck by a lorry on the
M20 in Kent, having been sentenced to a prison term in Italy for
espionage, although he did not serve time. The coroner returned an
open verdict for the May 2014 accident. Coughlan became involved
with Stefan GP in their fruitless attempts to join the F1 grid,
before spells with Williams F1 and Michael Waltrip Racing and
Richard Childress Racing in NASCAR. Dennis stepped down as McLaren
boss ahead of the 2009 season, handing control to Whitmarsh but
ousted him in 2014, returning as boss for the failed Honda reunion.
Dennis himself was ousted in 2017, leaving McLaren in June of that
year and has kept a low profile ever since. Alonso would return to
Renault for 2008 having had his McLaren deal ripped up before
joining Ferrari in 2010. His patience at the Scuderia's inability
to produce title-winning cars while Sebastian Vettel and then
Hamilton racked up wins and titles in 2010-2014 led to him
returning to Woking for '15 to work with Dennis. In the summer of
2007, you had got better odds on Lord Lucan being found riding
Shergar than Alonso ever driving a McLaren again. The final key
player Mosley left his post as FIA President in 2009, with Jean
Todt elected his successor. He died in 2021. But perhaps the
biggest impact was on McLaren. The team was effectively placed on
probation for 2008, with the MP4-23 being subject to investigations
to ensure no Ferrari DNA was present. Hamilton would claim his
first championship. But a crucial wedge was driven between McLaren
and engine supplier Mercedes. Being a 40% shareholder meant
Mercedes was liable for $40 million of the fine when it had done
nothing wrong - with Whitmarsh then agreeing to allow Mercedes to
crowbar an engine into the back of the Brawn Grand Prix 001 of
2009. This came against its own backdrop of political shenanigans
as teams tried to counter Mosley's influence, but Mercedes came to
the realisation it could have its own team, control the PR and so
decided to go it alone and brought Brawn out ahead of 2010. That
team was the Mercedes behemoth of 2014-21 and propelled Hamilton
from regular World Champion to all-time great. The loss of works
Mercedes power triggered the downfall of McLaren in the mid-2010s,
egged on by Dennis's insistence of joining with Honda - itself a
disaster for 2015. It would not be until 2019 McLaren would score a
podium again with Carlos Sainz in Brazil. It would not win again
after 2012 until Daniel Ricciardo at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.
In 2024, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri combined to deliver
McLaren's first constructors' title since 1998, with one of the
pair set to win the drivers' title in 2025 to go with the
constructors'. It would be the first time since Mika Hakkinen in
1998 that McLaren have secured a drivers' and constructors'
championship double. Not since 1990-1991 has McLaren retained the
constructors.' But the roots of that downfall and rebirth came in
the summer of 2007 with one of the weirdest, strangest and biggest
scandals sport, let alone Formula 1, had ever seen.
