Dennis slams affidavit leaks

McLaren are preparing for an extraordinary meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council to be held in Paris next Thursday, when the world championship leaders will face charges of 'fraudulent conduct' over the possession of secret Ferrari documents.

If found guilty, the team could be docked points or even face a multi-race ban that would derail their championship ambitions.

But while Dennis refused to give much away about his opinions of the events of the past two weeks, he did confirm that the team submitted a dossier of information to the FIA on Friday this week.

And for the first time, he also publicly named Coughlan as the employee who has been suspended from duties at the team.

"The first step was yesterday when we put in the submission to the FIA," Dennis told reporters at the Nurburgring on Saturday afternoon.

"Whilst it would be wrong to say I am looking forward to Thursday, I am eager to get into the process and put it behind us."

Earlier this week, Dennis moved to deny information published in the Italian press regarding the affidavit submitted by Coughlan to Ferrari following a hearing in London's High Court. The affidavit is confidential, and Dennis made it clear in the team statement that the information published was inaccurate.

"First of all, probably few people really understand what the circumstances surrounding this process are," he said on Saturday. "Or they certainly lack the understanding of the deeper implications of not adhering to the instructions of the court.

"The High Court ruling led ultimately to three recipients of Mike Coughlan's affidavit being told in no uncertain terms that it was privileged information, and that they would be committing a legal breach in the event of any of it being shared with third parties.

"I am quite sure the FIA understands the nature of the court order, so I can only assume the other parties who had this material have chosen to share distorted excerpts with other people.

"It is important to remember that at the end of the day it is the sworn statement of one individual in this affair, and as such, one would expect it to be the truth as he sees it. But we've not had any input in the process.

"Up until today I have not even acknowledged that Mike Coughlan is the suspended employee.

"There is a way to go through life and that is to follow the correct procedures. If other people choose to go down a different path that leads to the very damaging process where people have seen fit to spin and make derogatory remarks about the integrity of McLaren, fine. But that's not my style.

"We have given a full dossier to the FIA. The FIA is going through a process and we will follow strictly that process and after that process if there are any unanswered questions we will provide them."

A verdict from the hearing is expected on Thursday afternoon.