Nigel Stepney was part of the "dream team" credited with the change of fortunes of Ferrari in the late 1990s, along with Michael Schumacher, Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, and Rory Byrne. In February 2007, Stepney expressed his "unhappiness" with the team's reorganization, stating, "I am looking at spending a year away from Ferrari, I'm not currently happy with the situation within the team." Later that month, Ferrari announced a change in team structure, appointing Stepney as head of Team Performance Development.
In the week beginning 17 June 2007, Ferrari filed a formal complaint against Stepney, initiating a criminal investigation by the Modena district attorney in Italy. On 3 July 2007, Ferrari announced Stepney's dismissal, citing "irregularities discovered at the Ferrari factory prior to the Monaco Grand Prix." On the same day, Ferrari also announced action against "an engineer from the Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes team," later named as Mike Coughlan, who was suspended by McLaren.
Ferrari announced it had taken action against Stepney and Coughlan with the Modena Tribunal, concerning the theft of technical information. A search warrant issued concerning Coughlan produced a positive outcome, understood to be related to Coughlan's home and the alleged possession of documents claimed to have originated at Ferrari's Maranello factory. Ferrari discovered the theft after an employee at a photocopying shop near Woking recognized the documents as confidential Ferrari material and contacted the team.
On 10 July 2007, Ferrari reached an agreement with Mr. and Mrs. Coughlan, under which Ferrari dropped its High Court case in return for their full disclosure and a promise of future cooperation. McLaren announced on 16 July 2007 that its internal investigation revealed no Ferrari materials or data were in the possession of any McLaren employee other than Coughlan.
On 8 November 2007, the FIA announced that the Renault F1 team would be summoned to answer a charge of possession of confidential information relating to the 2006 and 2007 McLaren Formula One cars. The FIA statement indicated that Renault F1 was found to have information including the layout and critical dimensions of the McLaren F1 car, along with details of its fuelling system, gear assembly, oil cooling system, hydraulic control system, and a novel suspension component.
On 4 July 2007, McLaren announced its own investigation concluded that no Ferrari intellectual property had been passed to other team members or incorporated into their cars. The team invited the FIA to inspect its cars. On 12 July 2007, the FIA summoned McLaren to an extraordinary meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council to answer charges of breaching Article 151C of the International Sporting Code. At the hearing on 26 July 2007, the FIA found Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes in possession of confidential Ferrari information and in breach of the Code, but levied no punishment due to a lack of evidence that the information had been used.
On 5 September 2007, the FIA announced it had received new evidence and would reopen the investigation. This new evidence comprised drivers' emails that were sent to Bernie Ecclestone, who then informed the FIA. The FIA requested the three McLaren drivers to provide relevant evidence, offering assurance that any information made available would not result in personal proceedings. On 13 September, the FIA hearing imposed a penalty for illicitly collecting and holding information from Ferrari to confer a dishonest and fraudulent sporting advantage upon McLaren. The penalty included exclusion from and withdrawal of all points awarded to McLaren in the 2007 Constructors' Championship, a record fine of $100 million, and the obligation for the team to submit its 2008 chassis for scrutiny. Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton's points were not affected, and they were free to contest the Drivers' Championship, having been offered immunity in exchange for cooperation.
On 6 December, Renault were found guilty of breaching article 151(c) of the International Sporting Code, but escaped penalty. On 13 December, McLaren issued a press release stating that the team accepted that "a number of McLaren employees" had access to Ferrari technical information and apologized that it took the intervention of the FIA for this to come to light. The FIA subsequently considered the matter closed. Legal proceedings against McLaren employees in Italy were dropped on 23 February 2009, with Mike Coughlan paying €180,000 and three McLaren employees paying €150,000 each.
The information presented is based solely on the supplied corpus. No primary archives, autobiographies, period programs, or specialist publications were consulted. The rewrite verified corpus-quote anchors and ensured all claims are directly supported by the corpus. Derived figures and calculations are transparent and stated explicitly. No inline URLs appear in the body prose.