Renault could face a future penalty if any new evidence suggests they gained an advantage from McLaren technical information in their possession.
LONDON: Renault could face a future penalty if any new evidence suggests they gained an advantage from McLaren technical information in their possession, Formula One's governing body said on Friday.
The former world champions were found guilty of a breach of the rules but went unpunished at a hearing in Monaco on Thursday after the FIA's World Motor Sport Council decided there was not enough evidence to show the championship had been affected.
The International Automobile Federation published an explanation of that decision on Friday.
"Although a number of very unsatisfactory elements were noted during the deliberations...the WMSC concluded that there was insufficient evidence to establish that the information was used in such a way as to interfere with or to have an impact on the championship," it said.
"It should be noted that in the event of new information coming to light which calls into question the WMSC's conclusions in this decision, this matter may be re-opened by the FIA," added the statement.
The spying controversy was the second to hit Formula One this year. In the other, McLaren were fined $100 million and stripped of all their constructors'' points in September for having Ferrari information in their possession.
FOUR DRAWINGS
McLaren had claimed that Renault gained 'a clear benefit and unfair advantage' as a result of mechanical design engineer Phil Mackereth taking information with him when he left the Mercedes-powered team and joined Renault in September 2006.
A former Renault employee then moved to McLaren and told them what Mackereth had. At the same time, Mackereth informed his team's senior management.
McLaren had said that the information amounted to 762 pages when printed out and included 11 floppy disks with 18 individual technical drawings.
However the WMSC said it had emerged that Renault engineers had received and considered only four confidential McLaren drawings from Mackereth.
"The WMSC can be concerned only with what Renault had access to (rather than what Mackereth took from McLaren as only the former could impact the FIA Formula One world championship," the statement said.
Of those four drawings, the WMSC found that three were either of no use or were not used and Renault failed to understand the full significance of the fourth.
"The fourth drawing (a drawing of McLaren's so-called 'J damper'), was used by Renault to try to have the system that they thought McLaren was using declared illegal," it said.
"This failed because Renault had certain fundamental misunderstandings about the operation of the 'J damper' system. This suggests that Renault's sight of the 'J damper' drawing did not give Renault enough information to understand how it worked."
The FIA noted that Renault had removed the McLaren information from its computer system but had not been able to wipe it from some 28 permanent back-up tapes.
However it said Renault and McLaren had agreed to find a solution that would ensure that the tapes in question were put out of reach of Renault.
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