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MONZA - Formula One racing team Ferrari expect justice to be done in a rekindled spying controversy that could destroy McLaren's championship hopes.
"Ferrari is confident that the truth will out," the team said in a statement before their home Italian Grand Prix, with the Monza paddock awash with speculation about the source of potentially explosive new evidence against their title rivals.
Formula One's governing body, the International Automobile Federation (FIA), dropped a bombshell on Wednesday when they announced that fresh information had come to light in the long-running saga.
They reconvened the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC), their highest authority, for a hearing in Paris on Sept. 13 that could shatter the dreams of overall leader Lewis Hamilton and team mate Fernando Alonso, McLaren's double world champion.
The meeting will replace an appeal hearing, called after the WMSC decided in July not to sanction McLaren for unauthorised possession of a significant quantity of Ferrari technical information.
That controversial first hearing ruled that there was insufficient proof that McLaren had used the data to 'interfere improperly' with the championship.
However they warned the Mercedes-powered team that they could be kicked out of this and next year's championship if new evidence showed otherwise.
In the absence of concrete fact, the Monza paddock was buzzing with rumours.
One well-placed paddock source told Reuters that the 11 team bosses, as well as one team's drivers, had received letters from the FIA last week urging them to divulge any hitherto undisclosed information about the case.
Others suggested that details in one of those replies, possibly from a driver, had triggered the FIA decision to reconvene the council.
Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, the Finn who drove for McLaren last season, told a news conference that nothing had been sought from him.
Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, double world champion Alonso's team mate at Renault last year before the Spaniard left for McLaren, said he had not been asked either.
McLaren, who are 11 points clear of Ferrari with five races remaining, shielded Hamilton and Alonso from questions about the controversy. Reporters were told before talking to the drivers that for legal reasons neither could comment.
However Hamilton, in response to a question about his ability to focus, said he had not been distracted.
"I have been oblivious to everything that has been going on as my internet has not been working at home," said the 22-year-old Briton.
"I got here and found out there is stuff going on and I thought 'shoot'. I have just been trying to get on with my job and it doesn't affect me too much. I am just acting as if it is a normal weekend, which it is."
The controversy erupted in July when some 780 pages of Ferrari information was found at the home of McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan.
McLaren, who immediately suspended Coughlan, have said none of it was used in the design of their car and nobody else at McLaren was aware of what he had in his possession.
- REUTERS
