By DPA
Paris : Representatives of the McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team have been summoned by FIA, motorsports’ world governing body, to appear before an extraordinary meeting of its World Motor Sport Council here July 26.
FIA has called the team representatives to answer a charge that McLaren had breached Article 151c of the International Sporting Code by having unauthorised possession of documents and confidential information belonging to rivals Ferrari.
FIA said in a statement the documents included “information that could be used to design, engineer, build, check, test, develop and/or run a 2007 Ferrari Formula One car.”
Article 151c relates to “any fraudulent conduct, or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition, or to the interests of motor sport generally.”
The announcement comes a day after a high court hearing in London looking into how Mike Coughlan came to be in possession of secret information belonging to Ferrari was cancelled when the McLaren-Mercedes chief designer agreed to provide a sworn declaration.
Coughlan was suspended by McLaren after the documents were found in a search of his house last week and he has now agreed to provide an affidavit answering the Italian team’s queries.
Ferrari sacked former race and test team manager Nigel Stepney following an internal investigation that revealed a McLaren employee had been supplied with important team data.