As the only engine and chassis manufacturer, with so much history, there can be no doubt that Ferrari have had the ball fall their side of the line a few times. Ecclestone and Mosely have been seen too many times to not be impartial.

Espionage in formula one is like drug taking in cycling. It’s endemic.
And I suspect that scandals like this (along with race fixing) are only going to have a similar responce as the continual tour de France sagas.

The point drawn up by Clive (letter 7) is the most worrying.
I believe that this stuff happens regularly, but on a different scale. So if the two colluded, surely a top designer has better resources and more intelligence than to take hundreds of pages of classified material to the local pronta-print?

If Ferrari were trying to kill two birds with one stone- rid themselves of disaffected employee without paying compensation for breach of contract, and blame somebody else for the reason they are not winning?
Well pretty low, but this is the country of serie A scandal and the ridiculous punishments that followed.

It seems however, no scandal is big enough to shake F1 in it’s Bridgestone-shod boots.

I think if we knew everything about what goes on behind closed doors, we’d probably be shocked, but ultimately get used to it.

Espionage will never cease to exist in F1. There will always be some form of it, whether studying a front wing design through binoculars or doing it using other sophisticated ways.

One team always wants to know what the other does, especially if that advantage translates to good results on track.

Think about it. How does one team know that another is operating outside or on the border of the rules when it comes to say, elements of an aero package?

By watching (spying) on them.

Only difference is, they inform the FIA by launching a protest against the offending team and sparking an investigation, instead of taking the information and possibly gaining the same advantage.

If Ferrari could gain something from this scandal in court as far as the 07 championship, they will.

All is fair in love and war, and in F1 spying is part of it.
Only the names and faces of the people involved change, and THIS year the spies were caught.

What makes it a scandal for F1 is the extent of the information involved.

If this was football, the FIA would have to go into hiding in fear of their lives if they take points from Lewis, thankfully it’s not.

Ugly things happen in all sport, i would imagine that FIA would be right cheesed off with this one landing on their plate, i cant see any decision made will satisfy everyone, i hope Ron’s got a big enough hanky

Depending on the outcome, it may soon be forgotten by the masses – unless it dents Lewis Hamilton’s title hopes in any way, in which case it will never be laid to rest!

If, like most other sports, the Stepney thing would have been the first, second or third controversial event, some sort of positive result might have been possible. There is a point, however, when the “all PR is good PR” positive line is outweighed by the effects of the “not another dodgy event” negative line. Look at cricket or horse racing if you want proof of this – both have had problems with negative PR in the last few years, and both have had to fight hard to get their reputations back.

Question should be:Is Stepneygate good for F1′s PR?

I don’t see how my friend who does not watch racing or politics,will be so bloody interested in it just because one team is copying stuff from one another team.Especially when he thinks that all F1 cars look very identical to each other.

Back in 2005,the US GP was nominated for Sporting Moment of The Year at the Laureus Sport Awards.SPORTING?And we had a far better race in Japan later in the year and that was overlooked.In my opinion,Japan would have served as a much better poster boy(or poster race…whatever) but it was overlooked.

So think about it,do we really want to see F1 been brought on to the pages be popularised by scandals?I think not.