Italian police calm on McLaren criticism

In the wake of searches of the McLaren factory and the homes of five senior team personnel, the Italian police issued a media release detailing their actions.

They also explained that the information obtained would be added to evidence they had already gathered in which "clearly emerges the responsibilities of the management and some technicians at a high level in McLaren."

That statement drew a stinging response from McLaren, who said the statement was 'grossly inaccurate and misleading' as the Italian police had not had access to the evidence yet.

Furthermore, the team said they would complain to the Home Office about the manner of the Italian police's actions.

However, the full statement from the police suggested that the Italian police statement had been misunderstood by McLaren - as it made clear that the evidence was to be examined by the Surrey Police.

Despite the angry McLaren stance, the Italian Postal Police have said they are not upset by the criticisms - and they have put the matter down to a simple misunderstanding.

Division chief Sergio Mariotti told autosport.com: "I think they (McLaren) misinterpreted what was written in Italian.

"We said that the findings of the activity carried out in England at that time against McLaren and some of their managers, once analysed, would be added to vast circumstantial and factual evidence already consolidated by activities carried out in Italy and abroad in the past.

"By contrast, they understood that what was being acquired at that time in England was itself proof of McLaren's responsibility in the espionage case. I'm sorry they understood or translated wrongly, but we think we wrote fairly well how things stand."

Mariotti added, however, that the Italian police did have good reason to believe that the evidence they were searching for was important for their spy case investigation.

"As made clear by the district attorney in charge of the Italian investigation, Dr (Giuseppe) Tibis, if we got to the point of a rogatory (request) all the way to England, it means that we had some elements of proof or at least some evidence.

"Otherwise, I don't think a magistrate could obtain an international rogatory (request) based on unclear elements.

"And on top of that, there was also the FIA verdict, which expressed itself in a certain way against them, and those facts have already been acquired. So there were good reasons to go to England with a rogatory.

"Therefore I'm sorry there was a misunderstanding, but we are calm about it."

When asked when he expected the Italian police to examine the new evidence, Mariotti said: "The activity is yet to start, so we'll talk about the beginning of the analysis in the following days.

"So some time will go by before getting some results, because there is rather a lot of digital material."