Formula 1 News

Nigel Stepney denies responsibility for McLaren spy case 

Former Ferrari employee Nigel Stepney, involved in the spy story that shaked Formula One last season, had an interview on “Sky Sports” yesterday, where he denied to be responsible for the penalties that the Woking-based team received after being found in posession of Ferrari secret data.

Nigel Stepney said: “There is a lot being said, but I think there is a lot underneath that hasn’t been said that should have been. It’s been dramatised for various other reasons, which we will have to go into at a later date. Some stuff has been done politically. Some stuff should have been brought out probably in a different way. There’s a lot of politics at McLaren with the drivers there (Alonso – Hamilton). I think at the end of this year, or at the end of 2007, I was looking to get out of Ferrari anyway, whether it was going to be in Formula One I wasn’t quite sure.”

“I don’t feel responsible in anyway at all for what happened at McLaren. My ideas were to make contact with somebody, but not to benefit. It was to see what I could do somewhere else with a group of people. Obviously it got a bit sensitive and somebody used information more than I actually thought it was, or more than it should have been. It should never have been used to that extreme.”

“I think I’ve got a lot of other more interesting opportunities and going back into the grass roots of motor racing,” Stepney said of his future.