As my Brother in law has just pointed out ...... any information passed over at the beginning of the season is invalid within a month as they develop the cars so fast,  to gain any advantage there would have to be a constant flow throughout the season.

I would hazard a guess that this sort of information "exchange" is endemic in F1  the difference being this time, someone got caught.

Charlie wrote on Sep 15^th, 2007 at 8:15am:


A good mates brother used to work for Toyota and then after a season jumped to what was Jaguar. He said that he had to sign a chit about trade secrets, and then gave me one of those "what do you think looks". You change teams and are going to say sorry guys I can not tell you. I do not think so.


Matt

Give me a break on this anti ron stuff.
Mclaren have clearly broken the rules. Ron dennis on so many occasions has proven himself to be one of the most untrustworthy men in the pitlane, but unlike a team like Ferrari, who I will admit bend the rules and in some cases break them but they dont exactly hide the fact. Ron then covers it up by going on some emotional speech where he starts crying and complaining everyone is against him. Max Moselys comments today were by far the most telling yet of how things went down. Unfortunatly they are also the proof needed to show how inept the FIA are at consistant and logical punishments. This whole case as outlined in the evidence presented, then published by the FIA, wasn't just a couple of emails and texts saying oh wanna see some pictures of our latest wing. This was indepth information being passed around that Mclaren had absolutly no right to. Everything from brake biases to car balances and even race/ pitstop strategys for the first race or two. These are bits of information that were discussed by not only the two gentlemen mentioned from the begining but also its top driver and test driver. Ron claims he didn't know? So what, its become quite clear that influential and important members of the team did. As the boss of the team Ron takes responsibility for those individuals underneath him especially the drivers.
The FIA haven't ruined anything, if anything they have at least allowed the most important part to the fans carry one, when truthfully they had every right to kick them out of the championship. Alonso especially.

Nelson, i'll agree on your point about the points and position thing but not the wins and results being changed. Yes they should have taken away schumi's 97 entire season in respect to his keeping his position in the championship. was rather stupid.

As a side note, Ron dennis has hinted that Mclaren wont appeal, however Jean todt has also pointed out, the reason for that is because the penalties from that appeal could end up even worse for mclaren, and they wouldn't be allowed to make a case in the court as it would have to be left for the lawyers alone. I think Ron knows after Max's comments this weekend its safer to just take this one on the chin and not risk your drivers getting kicked out too.

I'll disagree about the schumi comment there for one reason. Schumi made it his priority to have a close relationship with his mechanics and the team as a whole. He would buy them gifts, take them to dinner and throw parties for them of his own free doing. They were at the end so loyal to him that he could have said jump off a cliff and they would have done so.
Otherwise yes they are very much alike in the sense that, both would do anything it takes to win, Senna prost and to a lesser extent mansell were all the same. You have to be ruthless to win a title. Just look how lewis has dropped off from FA now he's no longer getting Alonso's setup info. Given a few years experience LH will be just as good as FA in all areas, but right now Lewis is too much of the nice guy to win. Damon Hill was the same, it wasn't until he started to really get stuck in and doing things for himself instead of the old stiff upper lip act that he won a title.