The FIA has published accounts of "systematic" contact between McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan and Ferrari's Nigel Stepney - evidence that led the governing body to severly penalise the Woking-based team.

In a 14-page document issued at the Belgian Grand Prix, the FIA details how the World Motor Sport Council reached its verdict at its hearing on Thursday.

As was expected, the evidence revolves around an email exchange between McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa and world champion Fernando Alonso, plus logs of calls and SMS messages between Coughlan and Stepney.

In the emails, extracts of which have been published, de la Rosa talks about information coming from Stepney.

On March 21 de la Rosa wrote an email to Coughlan stating: "Hi Mike, do you know the Red Car's Weight Distribution? It would be important for us to know so that we could try it in the simulator. Thanks in advance, Pedro.

"P.S. I will be in the simulator tomorrow."

Coughlan replied to that email with a text message with the details that were required, although in the end those settings were not tried out.

On March 25 de la Rosa then sent an email to Alonso setting out Ferrari's weight distribution to two decimal places on each of Ferrari's cars for the Australian Grand Prix.

Alonso then replied under a section headed Ferrari: "Its weight distribution surprises me; I don't know either if it's 100 percent reliable, but at least it draws attention."

De la Rosa then replied: "All the information from Ferrari is very reliable. It comes from Nigel Stepney, their former chief mechanic - I don't know what post he holds now. He's the same person who told us in Australia that Kimi was stopping in lap 18. He's very friendly with Mike Coughlan, our Chief Designer, and he told him that."

The evidence then details emails from de la Rosa discussing a flexible wing, aero balance, tyre gas, Ferrari's braking system and the team's stopping strategy.

Furthermore, the FIA examined reports from the Italian police of call logs between Coughlan and Stepney.

The evidence said: "In total, at least 288 SMS messages and 35 telephone calls appear to have passed between Coughlan and Stepney between 11 March 2007 and 3 July 2007."

The World Motor Sport Council found that:

"- Coughlan had more information than previously appreciated and was receiving information in a systematic manner over a period of months;

"- the information has been disseminated, at least to some degree (e.g. to Mr. De la Rosa and Mr. Alonso), within the McLaren team;

"- the information being disseminated within the McLaren team included not only highly sensitive technical information but also secret information regarding Ferrari's sporting strategy;

"- Mr de la Rosa, in the performance of his functions at McLaren, requested and received secret Ferrari information from a source which he knew to be illegitimate and expressly stated that the purpose of his request was to run tests in the simulator;

"- the secret information in question was shared with Mr. Alonso;

"- there was a clear intention on the part of a number of McLaren personnel to use some of the Ferrari confident information in its own testing. If this was not in fact carried into effect it was only because there were technical reasons not to do so;

"- Coughlan's role within McLaren (as now understood by the WMSC) put him in a position in which his knowledge of the secret Ferrari information would have influenced him in the performance of his duties."

Big fat slick tyres, no traction control and manual gearboxes are the way forward (or backwards   ) for F1.. more emphasis on mechanical grip than aero grip.

The bigger the balls, the faster the car.

The paddle shifts are much safer, what I would like to see banned are the systems that stop a driver downshifting too far and too early. They are now so advanced that it automatically knows which corner a driver is about to come to, and it knows the lowest gear needed, so it stops you going to far down. Those should be banned, at least a driver would have to then think about the gear shifts.

I think Alonso should be taking as much of a hit as the team given the rather obvious evidence against him. I'd say removal of his points for this season and a ban for next season along with a fine wouldn't be over the top.

I don't think I've ever had a thread run so long 

So the question is, what was the Bernie input to keep Alonso on the grid. It would appear that my use of the word cheating was not so wrong Craig. Alonso should have been disqualified and removed fom the grid, as it has been shown that he was directly receiving and using the Ferrari information.
Any word or rumours as to the reaction from Mercedes and Mercedes plans for next year?

Matt