...with the news that Renault F1 will face a FIA council meeting in mid-December. The issue that they have been investigated over concerns the appearance of engineering drawings and other information about the 2007 McLaren, brought to the team by a new employee who joined from McLaren in September 2006.
This latest incident is probably nothing new in F1 circles. Design and engineering personnel switch teams all the time. The senior ones have to serve "gardening leave" before they can join a rival team, in an effort by their former employers to limit the value of the intellectual property knowledge that they may possess.
In this case, the information revealed thus far suggests that the closest parallel to recent incidents is not the recent McLaren case where an employee of that team was found to be in possession of Ferrari design data, but instead the closest parallel is the appearance of Ferrari design data inside the Toyota F1 team in 2003, brought to the team by two ex-Ferrari engineers. That year, the Toyota TF103 bore a striking resemblance to the previous year's Ferrari F2002 (see this split picture).
Damon Hill is right when he stated that these types of incidents are proving dangerous for the FIA. McLaren was fined $100m and stripped of all of it's Constructor points in 2007 for it's part in the appearance of Ferrari IP inside the team. If the FIA does not levy a significant penalty on Renault, elaborate semantic arguments about the differences in the cases may well fall on deaf ears, as the media and motor racing fans conclude that the FIA cannot impartially administer its own rules.
The cynic in me believes that Renault will escape with little more than a slap on the wrist, since Renault currently supplies Red Bull Racing with engines. If the FIA tries to come down hard on Renault, the company may withdraw from F1 again, just as it did in the mid-80's and the mid-90's. This would (at the least) remove engine supplies for 4 cars instantly. (McLaren's leverage over the FIA was reduced at the time of their WMSC hearing because of the apparent collapse of the deal that would have seen ProDrive entering F1 in 2008 using McLaren chassis and Mercedes engines). The only manufacturer that would be prepared to to take up the slack would be Ferrari, since it needs all of the revenue that it can get from F1. Whether the FIA would be prepared to have Ferrari providing engines for 8 cars (Ferrari, Toro Rosso, Force India, and possibly Red Bull) is an interesting question, given that it would give Ferrari a lot more leverage than it already has inside F1. However, there is as much chance of Mercedes stepping in as there is of the Earth reversing its rotational direction. BMW, Toyota and Honda could step in, and BMW is the only other supplier without an additional customer engine team. However, BMW has shown no signs of being interested in additional engine supply deals in the past, and Toyota and Honda have one customer team each already.
Whichever way you look at it, this latest investigation by the FIA, of an incident that has probably occurred dozens of times within F1 in recent memory, is not going to do the sport's image any good at all. The peeved reaction of the FIA to Damon Hill's comments is a give-away. They know that Damon is right about the image fall-out.
The original Toyota IP theft incident was handled largely through the court system in Germany, and by the willingness of Toyota to get some senior managers to fall on their swords in true Japanese style. The FIA was also able to (vaguely plausibly) claim that it was not involved because it was not asked to become involved.
In the case of Renault, despite the fact that the 2007 Renault clearly was nowhere near the equal of the 2007 McLaren (thus tending to confirm the view that the advantage of the McLaren data was minimal at best), Renault's possession of the IP data appeared to have become known to McLaren at the time that they were summoned to attend their special WCMS hearing in September. Given the draconian punishment meted out to McLaren following the second hearing, it was odds-on that McLaren would press the point of the Renault IP possession, if only to put the FIA in an awkward position. Renault has already admitted that it had possession of the data from the time that it recruited an engineer from McLaren in September 2006, so superficially the hearing should merely be concerning itself with what punishment is appropriate.
Whatever the outcome of the Renault investigation, another likely side-effect that the 2007 driver market is now stalled. If there is any doubt about Renault's participation in Formula 1 in 2008, any driver deals in that area will be suspended until the FIA hearings have concluded. This may result in Fernando Alonso being in limbo for a while, or it may result in him agreeing to join Toyota, which is the only team that can afford him and which has a vacancy, following their decision to axe Ralf Schumacher. Toyota may be about to attempt to sign Alonso and build the team around him. The only problem with that approach is that they fired their most capable technical leader 18 months ago (Mike Gascoyne) and the car has not been consistently competitive since.
There is a good reason why this is called the Silly Season...