Lewis Hamilton's Formula One Race Team fined $100 Million For Spying

(It's not very often that I will blog on Formula One Racing, but this story caught my attention so I decided to blog about it.)

Just lke Bill Bellichick's team, the New England Patriots, Lewis Hamilton's McClaren Team is learning that spying doesn't pay.

The Story of the Patriots Spying Rocked the Football World. The Story of McClaren Spying has rocked the world on the other side of the pond.

Accused of using leaked secret data from its main rival Ferrari, the Formula One team McLaren was hit with a record $100 million fine Thursday by the World Motor Sport Council in the biggest scandal to hit auto racing's premier circuit.
Although McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso escaped punishment Thursday, the espionage claims have rocked the sport and tainted McLaren's lead in the drivers' standings.

The team, also stripped of its constructors' points, already was battling accusations that it had used team orders to decide which driver would win races this season. Now, it is facing a new crisis.

And it's not the only major sports franchise accused of espionage. The New England Patriots have been accused of violating league rules by videotaping New York Jets coaches sending defensive signals to players. And at the women's World Cup in China, Denmark team officials found two men with video cameras sitting behind a two-way mirror in a hotel conference room where the team was about to hold a strategy meeting.

The F1 case broke in July when a 780-page technical dossier on Ferrari cars was found at the home of McLaren's chief designer, Mike Coughlan, who was later suspended. Ferrari mechanic Nigel Stepney, who allegedly supplied the documents, was fired.

McLaren escaped censure by the World Motor Sport Council in July due to insufficient evidence that Ferrari's technical documents were misused. But Honda's revelations that Stepney and Coughlan had approached team boss Nick Fry in June about joining the F1 team whipped up further concerns over Ferrari's intellectual property.

The $100 million fine imposed on McLaren is 40 times larger than the previous F1 record ($2.5 million).

Still, Dennis argued the fine is effectively halved because McLaren doesn't have to forfeit any revenue it's earned this season. He added that the financial strength of McLaren also would help absorb the impact of the fine.