On Thursday morning this week, the FIA World Motor Sport Council will be assembling in the Salle du Comite, the large meeting room within the FIA's plush headquarters at 8 Place de la Concorde, in the heart of Paris's swanky 8th arrondissement.
As I need not remind you, the WMSC is meeting in order to decide the fate of McLaren in respect of a spying scandal that has become known as 'Stepney-gate' - a bitter homage to Nigel Stepney, Ferrari's recently-sacked technical manager, who allegedly passed 780 pages of confidential Ferrari technical information to McLaren's recently-suspended chief designer, Mike Coughlan, earlier this year.
As to how McLaren did or did not use that info, we will surely find out later on Thursday, when the WMSC verdict is known; as to what disorder in Ferrari's IT security systems enabled Stepney to get his hands on such a huge quantity of highly sensitive material, we may never know.
![]() Ferrari and McLaren in parc ferme © XPB/LAT |
After all, despite his exalted job title (and salary), Nigel was in reality no more than the Scuderia's chief mechanic, albeit an extremely able and experienced one.