The End of the Affair - Renault and McLaren 18/12/2007 Max Mosley's suggested cancellation of the February meeting regarding the McLaren 2008 car has now been accepted by the FIA. Presumably, this means that the unsavory saga of the spy cases is over and it can recede into history, only to be resurrected when F1 fans need something to argue about during long, uneventful off seasons of the future.So great is the relief at this conclusion that it may seem curmudgeonly to say anything more - yet the Renault transcript, released only yesterday, deserves some form of comment, surely. And there is evidence that the FIA learns from its mistakes; the transcript is in PDF format once again but is created by the use of scanned images so that no copying and pasting is possible. The redacted parts stay redacted! I could mumble something about OCR (optical character recognition) software but that still won't let you see the secret bits and, besides, let's not confuse the powers that be with too much basic IT technology at a time.Response to the document has been muted as yet, although you can bet that plenty of F1 journalists are laboriously copying out relevant exerpts through their keyboards. I particularly like the innuendo present in Formula1Sport's report on the matter, however:The transcript also highlighted the role FIA president Max Mosley played in the hearing, such as when he stopped McLaren lawyer Ian Mill from asking Mackereth if one of the drawings could have been used for the design of Renault’s 2008 car."If we become engaged in discussion as to whether a schematic drawing can inform about the detailed design of a pump, we are not using the limited time we have very constructively," Mosley told Mill.It is hardly necessary for me to add that this could be a very important point in ascertaining any use of the information by Renault. But, no matter, the decision has been made and Renault remain in the sport, much to everyone's relief, I'm sure. There is only the outstanding business of the FIA's libel case against Martin Brundle to keep us amused until the beginning of the 2008 season therefore.Which brings to mind the phrase "witch hunt", interestingly enough a matter that was debated at various junctures during the McLaren hearing, thereby foreshadowing the decision to press charges against Mr Brundle. I have promised myself not to bore my readers with a long comparative dissection of both hearings but let me instead just quote from them both. Just to see whether we get a "feeling" that there is some difference in the way the cases were handled."The real issue is as follows: were the 780 pages disseminated into McLaren, to any degree?" - Max Mosley during the second WMSC McLaren hearing"It emerges from the written and oral submissions made (and it is admitted by Renault) that different Renault engineers received and considered four confidential McLaren drawings from Mackereth. In this regard Renault admits a breach of Article 151(c) of the International Sporting Code." - WMSC Renault decisionApparently "real issues" can be viewed and penalized in various ways, according to circumstances...It has also been suggested that McLaren were so severely punished because they did not reveal from the first the extent to which Ferrari information had penetrated their company. Renault are repeatedly said to have been transparent from the word go - except that this paragraph appears in the WMSC decision:"The findings of Renault's preliminary inquiry were that no dissemination beyond Mackereth had occurred. This had been Mackereth's evidence at the time. The various internal and external investigations, very much assisted by McLaren, demonstrate that this initial position was incorrect. Renault accepts this and its various witness statements produced after these initial findings have clarified the position."The similarities to the McLaren case multiply almost to the point of disbelief.I will let it rest there; let me just mention that a comparison of the two transcripts is exceptionally interesting if you have any interest in the matter at all. Echoes, echoes everywhere...
Clive
sidepodcast i would have thought you'd bring attention to the lack of recollection any member of the renault team has about any event prior to september '07.you'd imagine that a championship winning year would be at the forefront of their minds.collective denial maybe? Date Added: 18/12/2007
Clive Who knows, Sidey? There is so much in those transcripts that I could easily write a book on the various points but I thought I'd better spare my readers this time - they copped a fair bit of detailed stuff from me during the McLaren hearings. Collective amnesia at crucial points does seem to be a problem amongst F1 team members, especially when plans or drawings are floating around. Strange that... Date Added: 18/12/2007
sidepodcast for me, amnesia is the most important thing i took away from the hearing transcript.a hell of a defence for future misdemeanours, leave no trail / remember nothing. Date Added: 18/12/2007
Clive Hehehe, funnily enough, Sidey, I seem to remember using the exact same argument to explain non-existent homework at school - and that was a helluva long time ago! :D Date Added: 18/12/2007
Alianora La Canta Me too, Clive, though in my case I more often ended up arguing that the homework was not clearly specified (a bit like Article 151 (c) really), that it was impossible to do it due to some important piece of information being withheld (can you really believe that Ron and/or other senior McLaren members wouldn't have told both the FIA and Ferrari had he/they been aware that it would have stopped the problem before it started?) or that the amount of bullying that the school permitted to go unchecked left me too stressed out at the end of the day to do anything resembling work (er... ...I'd better not draw the analogy here!)(I also hasten to add that I only needed these excuses during secondary school. In the much-better-run sixth form attached to a different school, no such excuses were needed - or indeed permitted!) Date Added: 18/12/2007
Clive It is a well worn cliché that schooldays are the best days of our lives. As a schoolboy, I disagreed, feeling that nothing could be worse than the torture we were subjected to, but now I must admit that there is truth in the saying. I wonder if, at some time in the distant future, Ron, Max and Flavio will look back on this year and chuckle with glee at the mischief they got up to...? Date Added: 18/12/2007
Number 38 Sidey said: amnesia is the most important thing i took away from the hearing transcript.a hell of a defence for future misdemeanours, leave no trail / remember nothing. I don't know where you live Sidey but here in the USA we've got a CLINTON running for President and these words fit her perfectly: "I don't recall", "I don't remember", "I didn't know".Another incompetant liar just like her husband and she could be elected 'leader of the free world'. Sorry for the political rant but your words fit so well and my words can be considered a warning of what's coming !!! Date Added: 19/12/2007
sidepodcast "Sorry for the political rant but your words fit so well and my words can be considered a warning of what's coming"in that case, when it all falls to pieces, i'll claim to have "no recollection" of your warnings :) Date Added: 19/12/2007
Alianora La Canta Primary school and sixth form were the best days of my life. Secondary school were about the worst. I can't see time changing that particular analysis very much. Date Added: 19/12/2007
Clive I was very fortunate in having some of the best teachers in existence in secondary school, Alianora. In fact, I wrote about one of them in my personal blog, a little piece entitled (insert gratuitous self-promotion here) Thank You, Johnny, Wherever You Are. Date Added: 19/12/2007
Dan M Another incompetant liar just like her husband and she could be elected 'leader of the free world'. Sorry for the political rant but your words fit so well and my words can be considered a warning of what's coming !!!Bill lied but people didnt die.Bush lies and people die. I can live with a lying president as long as things get done, politics is a dirty game. You are right about Hilary though, I can only hope for 4 years of Obama-nation. Date Added: 19/12/2007
Clive Hey, the only form of politics allowed in this blog is FIA-bashing! It's more fun than all the conventional stuff, anyway. ;) Date Added: 19/12/2007
Dan M Well in that case, Hilary for FiA president!Bill got caught cheating and he was never punished! Date Added: 19/12/2007
Clive I think my brain just boggled, Dan. Hillary for FIA president.... Date Added: 19/12/2007
Steven Roy Imagine for one minute that Ron Dennis and Martin Whitmarsh accompanied by a couple of technical people who it could be proved had seen Ferrari data stood at the WMSC meeting and said 'I don't remember' from start to finish. I have a feeling Max would have hammered them for withholding evidence.Do any of you understand what the hit count refers to. I couldn't believe that Mackereth said that a file didn't have to be opened to generate a hit. It could be mentioned in a Word document. So they have a McLaren file which has either been opened or mentioned in a document 580 times. Unless there is some other explanation that is incredibly suspicious. I know Max was in a hurry to wrap things up but here he has a piece of evidence which may prove the file has been opened or discussed over 500 times. Surely worth waiting for an explanation. Date Added: 19/12/2007
Clive That's an interesting point about the hit count, Steven. As far as I'm aware, a hit is a call by the computer for a particular file (Mad can correct me if I'm getting this wrong). So, if a search engine robot calls at my blog, looks quickly at the front page, and then leaves, it's a hit. If, however, it picks one of the many links on the page and follows it (to Contents, for instance), that's two hits it has registered. In fact, such a robot generates many hits when it visits because it glances quickly at all the links on the page and each glance is a hit.The business about hits in Word documents is nonsense unless there are links to the file within the document - only then can the document generate hits on the relevant file. Mackereth makes the point that he has other files on his computer that generate a lot of hits, even though he doesn't access them much. If the computer is not open to the internet (in which case SE robots could generate hits but I seriously doubt that it can be, if Renault want to support their contention that Mackereth's files were not accessible to others), the only way this could happen is if Mackereth commonly accesses files that contain links to the files with many hits. He won't see it happening and so will be mystified that these files receive so many hits.So, if it is claimed that the high number of hits on the famous graphic file is caused by its presence in some Word documents, it must be present within those documents as a link. Which raises a couple of questions.Why, if this file is so little regarded, is it necessary to link to it from another document? The only reason to link to it would be to enable the reader to access the graphic file quickly and so see its relevance to whatever the Word document is about. And why is the Word document accessed frequently enough to generate so many hits on the graphic file? It would seem that the file was more important and useful to Mackereth than he is admitting.Was any study made of whether the Word document(s) spread beyond Mackereth's computer? If he sent copies of it to anyone, they have a link to the graphic file on Mackereth's computer - and now we need to know to what extent that computer is firewalled off from the rest of Renault's system.It is clear from the transcript that nobody in the room understands anything about computers. What the heck are they doing deciding important issues without expert help to explain to them the importance of such technical evidence? To call their approach amateurish is to put it mildly. Date Added: 19/12/2007
Steven Roy They refered to the file appearing as a string in a Word doc. I assume this is the same as a link. The Word doc was hypothetical as it was only given as a possible explanantion. Max was too confused about the technology so moved on to something else when Mackereth made a bumbling explanation of what he thought a hit might be. If I had been in Max's seat the alarm bells would have been ringing. How can a document that no-one else has access to and which Mackereth says he barely looked at run up all those hits? Date Added: 20/12/2007
Clive It all looks very fishy to me, Steven. I am no computer expert but have picked up some basic knowledge of how they work through using them for the last dozen years or so. Even that is enough to make me want to know more about this fabled Word document and why it should contain any reference at all to a graphic file that Mackereth says he never used. My first instinct would be to find a techie who knows about these things and ask him about hits and how an unused file could pick up so many of them. Far, far too many questions, yet Max asked none of them. Date Added: 20/12/2007
Alianora La Canta The other possibility that comes to mind is that Renault may have an automatically-updating company intranet (an internal network to allow people to easily access the organisation's electronic information). I have no idea whether Renault actually has one or not, but one of the big problems of standard intranets is updating them. If Renault have a system that uses SE-style automated searching, it could explain a lot.The system would make a link into the intranet (probably some deep dark corner of it, given how many files must surely be on the Renault F1 network). At this point, not only would Mackareth have no idea that the link had been made unless he stumbled upon it, but it would be nigh-on impossible to manage. All it would have taken would be a few junior staffers thinking to improve their knowledge and suddenly everything makes sense.Or maybe not, since the above reads like a minor conspiracy theory... Date Added: 21/12/2007
Clive Interesting thought, Alianora. But that would mean that Mackereth's computer was open to the Renault intranet, in which case the file would not have been walled off from possible access by others. And I think their case rests heavily on the belief that Mackereth's files were not available to other Renault employees while on his computer. Date Added: 21/12/2007
Alianora La Canta There was no evidence in the transcripts that excluded the possibility, but I agree with you about Renault's case depending on the intranet not being able to access Mackareth's personal storage area (and the implication that it was unlikely to be the case). Then again, this is the sort of gap that will exist if you insist on rushing a case. Date Added: 22/12/2007
Clive True, Alianora. And haste is the dominant impression one gets from all of the transcripts - Max was eager that things be dealt with as quickly as possible, even bringing in the fact that delegates had planes to catch in one of them. Date Added: 22/12/2007
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