McLaren's De la Rosa visits Italian magistrate
McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa met with an Italian magistrate on Tuesday as part on an ongoing investigation concerning the British team’s possession of confidential Ferrari information.
In September, McLaren were stripped of their 2007 constructors’ points and fined US$100 million after the FIA decided the team had benefited from access to the data. At the hearing, emails between De la Rosa and team mate Fernando Alonso formed part of the evidence. Alonso visited the Modena magistrate on October 9.
Ferrari are currently pressing ahead with additional legal proceedings against former engineer Nigel Stepney, who allegedly supplied the Ferrari data, which was subsequently found in the possession of McLaren’s suspended chief designer Mike Coughlan.
Modena’s public prosecutor, Giuseppe Tibis, issued ‘avviso di garanzia’ - a legal notice that someone is under investigation in a criminal procedure - to various McLaren staff at last month’s Italian Grand Prix, as well as to Stepney. The issuing of such notifications does not in itself imply that any charges are being considered.
