Newsgroup: it.sport.formula1.moderato
Titolo: [ENG] Stepney speaks out

Source: pitpass
http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=32054
Speaking to British journalists, Nigel Stepney has denied
sabotage, and claims that he intends suing his former employers Ferrari ,
accusing them of a dirty tricks campaign. "I've been with Ferrari for 14
years," the Englishman told Jane Nottage of The Sunday Times . "There's
been a lot of controversy over the years. I obviously know where the
bodies are buried."
He claims that he, his fiancee Ash and their baby daughter had to flee
their home after being shadowed.
"There have been high-speed car chases," he told Maurice Hamilton of The
Guardian . "'We've been followed by more than one car, with Italian
plates, and when we cornered one of them last Thursday evening the men in
it refused to speak. I don't believe they were journalists. Ash has been
stalked at the house. There was tracking gear on my car. Someone was
going to get hurt. I'd no option but to get out of Italy.'Previously, the
Englishman had been accused of sabotage - with some sections of the media
claiming that he had attempted to interfere with the cars of Kimi
Raikkonen and Felipe Massa before the Monaco Grand Prix - then, earlier
this week, Ferrari sacked him, claiming that he had passed information to
a member of a rival team. "I had been in the area of the factory where
the so-called incident took place," he said, "as it is somewhere I had
access to, but it is not true I did anything."Referring to claims that (
McLaren chief designer) had been found in possession of up to 500 Ferrari
documents, Stepney said: "I have no idea how he got them, no idea at all.
"We met at the end of April in Spain, just a catch-up between old
friends," he added, revealing that the meeting had been witnessed by
Spyker Technical Director Mike Gascoyne."The first sign of a potential
problem came in September last year when Ross Brawn said he would be
taking a sabbatical and the technical management structure would be
changing," said Stepney, according to Hamilton.The Englishman discussed
the situation with team boss Jean Todt, and subsequently he was given
responsibility for the race and the test teams."I wanted to report to
Aldo Costa, the head of chassis design," said Stepney. "He was the right
person to respond to. I didn't want to respond to Mario Almondo, the new
technical director," he added, referring to the man who had been promoted
from Human Resources, and who, in Stepney's eyes, did not possess the
necessary technical knowledge."By mid-February, the relationship had
started to break down," he admitted. "I couldn't work with them. I missed
the one-to-one relationship with Ross. He knew exactly what I could do; I
always had 100 per cent support from Ross. Now I had four or five people
to report to. It was very frustrating."I told Jean Todt I didn't want to
travel any more. I wanted to sit back and consider the future. Ferrari
took that badly. My role became head of performance development based at
the factory. I began to feel like I was some sort of traitor, just
because I no longer wanted to travel."At that stage, I wasn't looking
anywhere else," he continues. "But whenever I discussed anything with
people in the factory in the course of doing my job, it got fed back to
senior management. People became scared to talk to me. I was put in a
position where it was difficult to do my job. By the end of March the
situation was unbearable. I started to look at other teams, and
approached Nick Fry."He then refers to a meeting with McLaren Chief
Designer Mike Coughlan, which took place on April 28 in Port Ginesta,
Spain."I met up with Mike. I'd had one meeting with Nick and didn't want
to go into a second one alone. At first, Mike wasn't looking at a move
although he was unhappy with the McLaren management. Then three or four
people at Ferrari indicated to me, after reading stories of my approach
to Honda , that they would be interested in joining a technical group to
go to another team. They wanted to follow us to go into a structure in
which they felt comfortable."I categorically deny that any technical
information passed between Mike and I during that meeting, or at any
time. We mainly discussed the sort of infrastructure and tools we would
need to get the job done in another team. I saw the future as helping to
put such a structure into place at Honda .Referring to some of the recent
speculation that he was offering a tailor-made technical 'dream team'
complete with inside info on at least one of the leading cars, Stepney
said: "You don't just take one team's structure and bang it into another
team. "These things have to evolve. Mike and I agreed to pool our
expertise and talked about what we could bring to a team. Then we met
Nick Fry together on 1 June at Heathrow."On 17 May, when there were legal
moves against me by Ferrari, people were taken from the factory to the
Carabinieri headquarters to be interviewed, but no charges were made
against anyone. My house in Serramazzoni has been raided twice. "After
the thing with the Carabinieri, I called Jean Todt to say I was going on
holiday to the Philippines and wouldn't be coming back until this was all
sorted out. We haven't spoken since." The Englishman admits that he had
filled in the relevant form had left it on his desk having failed to
follow procedure and hand it in.It was on last Tuesday (July 3), after
being contacted by an un-named British journalist that Stepney heard
about the Coughlan development."I admit it looks blatantly obvious," said
Stepney. "But something is happening inside Ferrari. I was accused by
Mario Almondo of taking some drawings. I had them in my possession
legitimately because I needed them for work on the simulator, but it was
reported to him by the drawing office that I had them. I got the papers
and threw them on Almondo's desk. The next day they were back on mine!"I
categorically deny that I copied them, or that I sent them to Mike
Coughlan. I knew I was being watched all the time at the factory and that
everything I did or said was being reported back and that people knew
whenever I accessed files on the computer. I have no idea how anything
came into Mike's possession. I don't even know for sure that he has had
documents. Do you know for sure? Categorically, he didn't get them from
me. If he has some, then they came from another source"I would be a bit
stupid to go anywhere if I had such material, wouldn't I?" he continued.
"I put a lot of the systems and working practices in place at Ferrari,
relating to the operations of the test and race teams and the preparation
of the cars, information I am told was supposed to be in the documents. I
had worked on them with Ross and Aldo Costa. So if I already had all that
material in my head, why would I need it all again? I am seriously
doubtful that Mike has these documents."I have nothing to hide," he
insists. "I might as well have left the keys to my house with the
caretaker so anyone from Ferrari could go in. Ferrari is terrified that
what I have in my mind is valuable. But do you think Nicolas Tombasis
came to Ferrari from McLaren without something in his mind? The new
Ferrari front end aero came from McLaren, because it was in his head."I'm
just a bit confused. I was never a yes man and as soon as I went against
the system at Ferrari, I got squeezed. Ferrari is unique in Italy; it's a
religion. If you go against it, it's like going against the Vatican. I'm
anxious, naturally, but I haven't done anything wrong and I believe in
the legal system in Italy."
Copyright 2007 Pitpass.com
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 obviously know where the bodies are buried."
Popcorn!
-- 
Fluoredshift 

 Popcorn!
Un apio di commenti al volo:
1) Ha ragione Briatore: perchè mai Ron Dennis, in questi giorni, è un 
amicone con tutti quando fino a prima del casino era decisamente sulle 
sue?
2) Si, guarda, James Bond a Stepney gli fa una pippa: pedinamenti, 
rincorse, inrappolamenti, fughe, ecc. ecc.- Mai lete tante stronzate tutte 
insieme. Se poi leggiamo la fonte, Sunday Times, si capisce tutto.
Intanto Raikkonen ha vinto, mentre la Ferrari ha fatto la figura della 
pippa con la macchina di Massa. Peccato poteva essere doppietta. Ma anche 
così, mi fa piacere rivedere un Raikkonen che torna a vincere e 
convincere.
ivan
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