It Doesn’t Make Any Sense
I’ve been wanting to discuss the Nigel Stepney predicament on the podcast since the moment the story broke, almost 3 weeks ago. However, seeing as we’re in the midst of the busiest part of the F1 season and we have so much other stuff to get through, the story always gets sidelined.
This week’s show will also be a busy one (read: late one), which means I’m just going to have to write my thoughts down instead. So if you could read the following as if you heard me say it, that would be great. Oh, and bear with me, I go on a bit.
The first thing that sprang to mind the moment I read the headline ‘Stepney Faces Criminal Enquiry’ on the Autosport website, was “That’s nonsense”. I read and re-read the article and after something like 15 minutes of consideration my thoughts remained the same.
Nothing I read made any sense, and nothing added up. Ferrari had taken action against Nigel, but he was still their employee? Nigel was on holiday, and uncontactable? As far as I know Stepney rarely sleeps during a championship campaign, let alone takes a holiday and why didn’t Ferrari dismiss him immediately?
A bit of context is probably important at this point. The Scuderia’s troubles kicked off in March when an unhappy Stepney kicked up a fuss in the media, about the staffing changes made within the team following the departure of technical director Ross Brawn. Supposedly the technical manager wanted to take a sabbatical and await Brawn’s next move. He also made it abundantly clear he would be open to offers from rival teams:
If an opportunity arose with another team, I would definitely consider it.
I don’t know about you, but I’m guessing that a member of the Italian team saying those words out loud, must’ve been like taking a knife to Jean Todt’s chest and giving it a firm twist.
The next thing we hear on the subject is Ferrari decline Nigel’s request and he’s moved out of the spotlight into a factory role. The PR people put a positive spin on the situation and all appears well. That is until May, when Autosport publish rumours of a possible link between Nigel Stepney and the Honda team. Honda F1 CEO Nick Fry is quoted as saying:
I can’t comment on which teams they might come from, but one thing I will say is that there are two things I have been very impressed with.
Which is quite a statement read with hindsight.
That brings us back to the current fiasco and the red team opening a criminal investigation into the man of the moment. Although this appears to be quite a significant move, in Italy, it’s quite possible to sneeze at the wrong moment and find you’ve inadvertently opened a criminal investigation.
Crazy rumours kick off as to what the charges might be, but Ferrari will only confirm that it’s something to do with a situation occurring at the factory before the race in Monaco. Stepney’s lawyer Luca Brezigher is quoted as saying:
I can only say with certainty that Stepney is formally investigated, but the charge against him at the moment is rather unspecified.
Again I’m thinking this is all nonsense. Taking a leak against the factory wall could be considered a situation inside the gates of Maranello. With no further information offered, there’s nothing, it’s all hearsay.
Rumours rumble on and the next significant milestone is McLaren are implicated, supposedly an engineer from the team has been in contact with Stepney. Ferrari finally dismiss Nigel and a civil action is brought against McLaren’s chief designer Mike Coughlan. The High Court issues a warrant and supposedly evidence is found that suggests the man was caught red-handed with incriminating evidence. McLaren have no choice but to suspend Mike while the FIA step up and begin their own internal investigation.
Ron Dennis is forced to publicly plead his team’s innocence, putting on his best soap-star tears in the process. Before Nick Fry of Honda pipes up and admits that Mike and Nigel had approached the green team with a plan to provide a solution to their current performance woes. This plan may or may not have involved other staff from the two rival teams
This week Ferrari took action against Coughlan and his wife Trudy claiming she was responsible for taking a bunch of illegal material to the local photocopiers and that it was the copiers that gave them the tip-off. But today Ferrari cancelled part of their High Court request in return for the Coughlan’s cooperation.
Phew! Okay, so here a couple of questions for you:
- Why didn’t Ferrari allow Nigel to take a sabbatical?
- Why didn’t Ferrari immediately dismiss Nigel at the first place?
- Why did Ferrari bring a civil case against Mike and not involve the police?
- If Mike had anything to hide, why didn’t he bury the lot, the very second that Stepney looked to be in trouble?
- Why would an intelligent woman walk into a public copying agency with a pile of illegal papers?
Final question:
- What are the chances of a Ferrari fan working in a copy shop, figuring out something was up, and then having the wherewithal to contact the team?
That I think is the most pertinent question of all. Put yourself in that position, you photocopy papers for a living. Firstly would you realise what you were looking at, and would you then really call up this offices of Scuderia Ferrari Marlborough and explain what you’ve seen? Would you not speak to your boss first? Would you not call the police first?
When was the last time that you saw something dodgy in F1…and then phoned up the team to tell them? All very odd goings on. Very odd indeed.
Here’s a couple of random thoughts. If you were in a key position in a Formula 1 team and you discovered that one of your employees was planning to jump ship (taking a couple of important staff members with him), what would be your next move? If you also discovered that said employee was planning to hook up with a rival team’s engineer, in order that they both head to a third team, what would be your next move?
I’ve no doubt that this saga is going to run and run. I’m also in no doubt that both Nigel and Mike’s reputations will be forever tarnished whether they be absolved of all wrongdoing or not. Whatever happens in the future, I think it’s a safe bet that any other potential deserters will think twice before heading for the door marked ‘Exit’ and I’ll leave you with my favourite quote thus far. It’s from the man at the center of the allegations, a man who’s clearly up for a fight:
I’ve been with Ferrari for 14 years and there’s been a lot of controversy over the years, and I obviously know where the bodies are buried.
Excellent!
July 11th, 2007 at 9:22 pmOllie said:
Regarding the copier place. Well, many people who work in photocopier shops will check that what they are photocopying is not copyrighted in anyway. I find (in my experience) they will leaf through a document quickly just to check. Secondly, it was a reputed 700 pages. Now, if I’m gonna sit on my tod and photocopy 700 bleedin’ pages, you can bet your bottom dollar I’m taking a sneaky peaky at whatever it is. And thirdly, apparently the docs had Ferrari stamps all over them. Considering the shop was in Woking, even the dumbest employee would be able to add two to two.
Every other question is good though. I can only assume Nigel wasn’t fired immediately because the team were unsure of the full facts. To fire someone, in the way that he was, and from the position he was in, you need to be damn sure you’re right with your accusations.
The one question that had me stumped me the most was the one regarding the copier shop. Why would someone use a copyshop for a ~700 page confidential document. Blatantly you’re going to copy it at home. At least, I would anyway.
July 11th, 2007 at 9:31 pmme said:
points taken, but, you still wouldn’t call ferrari would you?
here’s a challenge. pretend you’re the copier guy, try and call the Italian team, see how many hoops you have to jump through to get in touch with them. then see if they even respond, let alone believe what you’re claiming.
i’m damn sure if it were me the first call i’d make would be to the police…or failing that, the Daily Mirror. this guy could be worth a fortune now!
final point. where is this mysterious tipster and why isn’t he talking? what a great story he would have. the tabloids would love it, especially on the weekend of the British GP. we’re not getting half the story here.
July 11th, 2007 at 9:44 pmOllie said:
Oh no, I totally agree that the whole saga (and I mean the whole saga) is fishy. Just wanted to point out that if I worked in a copy place, and Mrs Nigel was stupid enough to come in with “Private & Confidential: Ferrari Classified Secrets & Locations Of Bodies” document, I would read it, make a copy for myself, and then blog it at BF1.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:00 ambrendan stallard said:
Me,
I think you have it well rounded up. From my own experience, I can tell you that people can be remarkably stupid or arrogant when not covering their traces. The copy shop thing was astounding, but those who are too busy, or unused to criminal activity: or just careless and arrogant can fall into the biggest elephant trap.
Bodies buried, well, while it was always useful in the old bill to have as much blackmail on everyone else that you could get, the real trick is using the threat of it without making it too obvious, and then actually never using it.
You see, if you know your working colleague Pc Tork is seeing WPC Smith in off duty hours without advising his wife on the matter, really, do you really want/need to tell Mrs Tork?
Whose going to care or believe, when he tells us about the barge boards, yada, yada?
I knew where vast arrays of corpses were in shallow graves, but I never told a soul, Senor, nary a soul:)
If I were Mr Stepney, I would organize meself M’Learned fiend, and do a deal with a tabloid: then go and live quietly in New Zealand and resist importing Pasta!
July 12th, 2007 at 12:20 amme said:
see, i’d do the opposite. forget the money, i’d want to make my ex team suffer. hit ‘em where it hurts and make them *lose*. give as much information to their competitors and watch as the results fall by the wayside.
also, i don’t think it’s a question of anyone believing, it’s a question of bernie wanting to keep the sport away from more controversy. if things start getting nasty, it’ll be time for an FIA “bringing the sport into disrepute” card, and Nigel will be made to disappear.
July 13th, 2007 at 12:12 ambrendan stallard said:
Me,
One thing that does look rather nastily co-incident.
Since the finds, Ferrari have stopped losing and are looking ominously fast and solid.
With all of Big Ron’s enviable calm public face, if I were a simple bloke, I’d be thinking to myself, well, wossitallabahtthen? McLaren get found out and all of a sudden golden boy slows down and the red cars start going like stink.
I respect your opinion, is it just the tracks, one of those spurts that happen now and again, the aero fix, or just Joss?
brendan
July 13th, 2007 at 12:31 amme said:
i think ferrari’s resurgence is down to the fact they’ve fixed their windtunnel. we mentioned before about how the tunnel’s rolling-road had broken free a while ago, and caused all sorts of chaos and destruction that required the Scuderia to put aero development temporarily on hold.
that’s certainly one reason why they fell behind.
something interesting that autosport.com picked up on today, is that back at the beginning of the season mclaren brought ferrari’s illegal floor to the attention of the fia
at the time, team macca claimed they spotted something odd on the car at the race track. but did they also have documentation to tell them what to look out for?
—
this whole saga is intriguing, i find it more entertaining than the racing right now. i still don’t buy the explanations the press releases are telling us. and part of me thinks that ferrari are using this as a convenient smokescreen to sneak in controversial parts like the new front wheel bins.
but no doubt it’ll all come out in the wash soon enough. in the meantime we’re learning all sorts of juicy gossip about the inner workings of f1 teams and i’m sure bernie’s really unhappy that an excellent championship battle is sidelined by rumours of espionage and corruption!
July 13th, 2007 at 1:22 pmme said:
here’s another thought to mull over.
back in april this year. spyker managed to get hold of a selection of red bull racing blueprints.
rbr boss horner was quoted at the time as saying:
which begs the question. why haven’t the fia got involved in that case?
also, how come sensitive documents are suddenly passing freely between racing teams?