The Truth From Jean Todt

This is taken from the official Ferrari website, straight from Jean Todt.

A reaction in the cold light of day

Twenty four hours on from the World Council's surprising decision which provoked so much discussion, as can be seen simply from looking at those sent to our Internet site, Ferrari CEO Jean Todt chose to reflect in the cold light of day on everything that has taken place. "I am bitter about it: what happened yesterday is serious. On the one hand a verdict of guilt was handed down and on the other, no sanctions were imposed. I cannot understand it," reaffirmed Todt. "During yesterday's meeting, the McLaren bosses, with no exceptions, admitted that their chief designer had obtained since back in March, prior to the Australian GP, documents from Nigel Stepney. Some of this data was used to prepare a clarification request submitted to the FIA, aimed clearly at us, given that throughout the Melbourne weekend, McLaren team principal and his closest colleagues made statements in which they threw doubt over "some cars." Therefore, such information was in fact used to obtain an advantage over us: not through an improvement in their performance, but instead through limiting ours. It is important to underline that the information used to try and damage Ferrari through the FIA might be only a part of the information received by McLaren. In an attempt to justify its actions, McLaren has tried to claim the immunity normally accorded to a whistleblower in some legal systems. But it should be noted that usually, an informant or whistleblower goes to the competent authority to denounce something, whereas in this case he went to Ferrari's main rival who, and it is not us who say this but the FIA, took great care not to mention that the information was obtained in this way.

Let us move on. McLaren has confirmed that it has had to install a firewall to prevent further information from Stepney from reaching the team in the form of documents. Furthermore, Coughlan has been asked to tell the very same Stepney to stop sending him information. It is a shame that before this, Coughlan asked him for information on our brake balance system, then went to lunch with him in Spain, before calmly returning home with 780 pages of designs, diagrams, data and a whole lot more - as stated by the FIA release - with which to design, develop run and race a 2007 Ferrari Formula 1 car. As confirmed in that decision yesterday, the violation was already there in the simple possession of the information, which in itself constitutes an enormous advantage in a sport like Formula 1. In Ferrari's opinion, it is like playing a hand of poker with a rival who already knows what cards you are holding.

It remains incomprehensible that apart from possession, one must also demonstrate the effective and visible use of this information on the McLaren car. Actually, this very same fact, on the basis of available information which the FIA used to find McLaren guilty, shows that the offence lies in the possession without the need to prove anything else. The proof is there and this led to the FIA's decision. Therefore I find it difficult to understand how the verdict makes sense. Furthermore, I have to say that the proof of effective use requested by the FIA is impossible for Ferrari to furnish, because of course, Ferrari does not have access to the McLaren car."

Todt further added this piece of behind the scenes background: "A few weeks after the race in Melbourne, the McLaren team principal proposed that we should reach a sort of agreement to establish a better relationship between our two teams, thus avoiding any future denunciations to the sporting authority. I replied that I found it impossible to believe him, because on several occasions we had seen that certain commitments had always been disregarded by McLaren. There was an exchange of views and, believing in their good faith, I agreed to sign this agreement on 9 June last. Since that time and even earlier, McLaren was perfectly aware, not only of the e-mails sent by their informer within our company, but also of the fact that their chief designer had stayed in contact with him and had received and continued to be in possession of a significant amount of technical information that belonged to us. So, on the one hand, they had come to say "let us trust one another," and on the other they were hiding serious facts such as those just stated above, but making no effort to inform us as would have been in the spirit and to the letter of our agreement.

"Finally, it should be noted that yesterday's meeting was not an appearance before a tribunal, but a meeting of the FIA World Council, at which only McLaren was asked to respond to accusations and in which we were present only as observers. Therefore there was no possibility to play an active role as we would have wished. I was only able to ask a few questions and reply to some, but we were not able to present our case nor the documents to support it.

"This decision remains very disappointing and surprising. It is not acceptable to create a precedent in such an important case in which the guilty verdict for serious and persistent violation of the fundamental principle of sporting honesty does not automatically incur a penalty. For our part, we will press on with the legal actions currently taking place in Italy and in England and we do not rule out taking further action."

Europe - Massa deserved to win

Ferrari boss Jean Todt believes that Felipe Massa deserved to win yesterday's European Grand Prix after being robbed of victory by Fernando Alonso four laps from the end.

The Frenchman also rues Ferrari's continued problem of failing to maximise on points when the team has the obvious performance advantage over McLaren - the main reason why the Maranello-based outfit trails its British counterparts by 27 points in the constructors' championship.

Todt said: "The result of this European Grand Prix should not be described other than disappointing. We had a very competitive car and we were starting from first and third places. But we are going home with just eight points thanks to Felipe's second place.

"At the end of a race run in changeable weather, - dry, wet, dry again and more rain at the end - Felipe saw himself miss out on a win which he richly deserved, losing out in the very last moments when the track was wet once again. Unfortunately, he had vibrations with his rain tyres which made the car difficult to drive.

"We are very disappointed for Kimi, stopped on lap thirty five by a problem with the hydraulic system. We have to find out the cause but once again it shows that you do not go far without reliability. There is still a long way to go in this season and anything could yet happen in the seven remaining races."

Ferrari technical head Luca Baldisserri also questioned the team's problem of failing to capitalise on its performance advantages. He believes that the team is only creating more problems for itself.

He said: "This was a race in which we were capable of picking up maximum points. There is much to regret because if we do not make up ground in the classification while we are as competitive as we were today, then the situation gets more complicated."

New cutout podvane at Ferrari

Ferrari are really putting in a huge effort to make up for the lost ground because of windtunnel problems earlier on in the season. Now that everything is back on track, developments are clear and pay off. The Italian team has brought a new sidepod vane to the three-day test at Spa. The new panel in the upper image is now open in the middle and features a slit similar to what McLaren introduced albeit slightly more subtle.

F2007 Update for Silverstone

Ferrari have once again developed a new rim cover, but this time it has been so thoroughly developed that it doesn't rotate with the wheel any more. The new cover is fitted inside the front wheel to help brake disk cooling. The assembly comes with a newly developed wheel nut (see left image). The nut consist of a central, silver coloured part that does not rotate and is fixed to the wheel axis. Around it is a blue part that does rotate with the wheel. When the fronts wheels are now changed during a pit stop, the carbon rim cover comes off with the nut as one part. After a new tyre is fitted, the wheel nut is again put on with the help of a specially developed screwer to ease handling for the pit crew.

The new system is ingenious in a way that it allows for the cooling exit (opening in lower left of right image) can stay at the same location all through the lap and hereby increase brake cooling and wheel aerodynamic efficiency. The fixed location meanwhile also has the benefit that it washes away earlier protests of rivalling teams who claim that the wheel covers (the ones that rotate with the wheel itself) are forbidden moveable aerodynamic devices.

Updates to the F2007

At the Silverstone test 2 weeks ago Ferrari introduced new winglets in front of the F2007's cockpit, placed either side of the chassis. Resembling similar winglets on the Renault and McLaren, these small additions better divert airflow around the cockpit and, more importantly, improve the quality of airflow directed towards the sidepod inlets, thus aiding cooling. They also allow the team to run more radical front wing angles, which without the new winglets would cause too much disruption to the airflow to the sidepods.

Raikkonen spoils British party

Kimi Raikkonen has won the British Grand Prix. Many would have hoped to see Lewis Hamilton win his home Grand Prix but it as the Ferrari driver who dominated Sunday's race. He finished well ahead of McLaren drivers Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. He passed Alonso after the second pit stop and stayed out front. Felipe Massa had to start from the back of the grid after his engine stalled on the starting grid during the formation lap, however he drove a majestic drive to finish 5th.

Ferrari confirms case against McLaren member and fires Nigel Stepney

After McLaren announced that it has suspended a senior member of its technical team the Ferrari team announced that it has recently presented a case against Nigel Stepney and an engineer from the McLaren-Mercedes team with the Modena Tribunal, concerning the theft of technical information.

The Italian team furthermore confirmed that legal action has been instigated in England and a search warrant has been issued concerning the McLaren engineer. This produced a positive outcome when it is believed that police found incriminating evidence at the McLaren employee's house on Tuesday. Ferrari also confirmed on Tuesday that it had dismissed Nigel Stepney after he had been suspected of sabotage for some time, allegedly tampering with the fuel tanks on the Ferrari cars prior to the Monaco Grand Prix. However, it would seem that the revelation that a McLaren employee received technical information from a Ferrari insider has been the breakthrough in this case and the tipping factor in Stepney's dismissal.

We are back!!!

Kimi Raikkonen stole victory from Felipe Massa in the French Grand Prix to lead home a dominant Ferrari one-two ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Raikkonen's second win of the season brings him back into championship contention. Fernando Alonso meanwhile finished seventh, despite pulling off a sequence of thrilling overtaking moves.