Hamilton not needed by Italian magistrate

World champion Fernando Alonso met with Tibis yesterday in Modena for two hours as part of the ongoing criminal investigation in Italy regarding the transfer of confidential Ferrari information to McLaren officials.

Tibis is currently conducting the investigation against ex-Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney, with suspended McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan also named as a suspect in the case.

Other McLaren officials, including McLaren F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh, have received a written notice at Monza last month that they too will be investigated in the affair.

Alonso was invited to meet with Tibis yesterday as an informed party and not as a suspect, answering questions about his email exchange with de la Rosa earlier this year, which suggested Stepney had leaked confidential information to Coughlan regarding Ferrari's technical set-up.

According to today's Corriere della Serra, the Spaniard collaborated with the Italian magistrate but emphasized that he did not know at the time that the information was illegally obtained and could not testify as to whether or not the information gave McLaren any advantage in their competition with Ferrari.

"Alonso was heard as a person in the knowledge of the facts," Tibis told the newspaper. "We are just at the start, others will follow."

Asked whether de la Rosa is expected to be interviewed, Tibis replied: "Certainly." But when asked about Hamilton, the Italian magistrate stated, "I don't see any reason why."

Tibis said, however, that other people under investigation would be harder to interview, seeing as their invitation will have to be processed via international channels.

According to Corriere della Serra, Tibis nonetheless expressed optimism over his case against several suspects.

"Let's say that, for certain subjects, we have something interesting in our hands, while the position of others still needs to be defined," he said.