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Inside the Scandal That Rocked the Formula One Racing World

wired.com — "Scan them onto two CDs" Trudy Coughlan told the clerk at a Document Image Processing, as she handed over a sheaf of 780 pages. Nothing strange about the order, unless you happened to be a Formula One fan and happened to take a close look at the material ...

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Pottypotsworth, on 05/20/2008, -4/+93And here i was thinking this article would be about Max Mosley and his Nazi orgy.
- Gryffydd, on 05/20/2008, -1/+5"she needs more of ze punishment!"
- iheartartoo, on 05/20/2008, -0/+6No, no, no, the OTHER scandal that rocked the Formula One Racing world.
- hermslice, on 05/20/2008, -2/+3Dugg because you said orgy
- maelnum, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2Actually page 8 has that.
  its just the tip of scandal iceberg.
kickoff22, on 05/20/2008, -1/+55Oh this is great. *Note to self - remember to do my own photocopying when conducting formula one espionage...
- maelnum, on 05/20/2008, -2/+7scan 780 pages?!? you have to be kidding me...
  - michaelb323, on 05/20/2008, -1/+1This is just like it happened in Speedracer.
  - alittleroy101, on 05/20/2008, -0/+4scanning 780 pages isn't that difficult. You just put them into the feeder on your copier like normal, and it rips through them.
CWSounds, on 05/20/2008, -53/+31buried for ridiculous length.
- oldhick, on 05/20/2008, -2/+41True, who actually wants ALL of the detail and background on a story. We really just want the sensationalist half-assed attempt at a story... /s
  - ace429k, on 05/20/2008, -5/+5like Fox News?
- denhamcoote, on 05/20/2008, -0/+11Aww, Ain't ADD a bitch, hmm?
  The background info makes for a good read.
- zydeco, on 05/20/2008, -0/+6It's a magazine article. They tend to go beyond 500 words. Stick to Cracked if you're bored.
- EarlOfLade, on 05/20/2008, -2/+2You must be American - attention span like an amoeba.
  And people wonder why USA is sinking further and further towards becoming a third world country...
suntali, on 05/20/2008, -17/+0haha it seems funny,. http://sms.nugha.com
The2ndAct, on 05/20/2008, -23/+17Really long and I don't care at all about racing. Anyone care enough to post the Cliff's Notes?
- borez, on 05/20/2008, -1/+331.Man steals secrets of car design from rival team
  
  2. Gets caught
  - ToRoE, on 05/20/2008, -0/+5and in this case stealing is defined as: Secret paperwork was handed over from current team principal, who is interested in leaving team with the accomplice. weaksauce.
    - NJank, on 05/20/2008, -4/+2and don't forget, it Rocked the Formula One Racing World!!!!111!!!one!!!
  - heliox, on 05/20/2008, -2/+33.????
    4. Profit
  - Elliuotatar, on 05/20/2008, -1/+2I skimmed the whole article, but I couldn't find out if they actually paid the guy for those schematics and how much. If he just did it out of spite, that's one thing. But if they were paying him... and he then went on to put powder in the gas tanks and get caught in the act... then he's a moron for ruining it when he had something good going!
    - Fxer, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2He had the schematics in hand and was meeting with top bosses of other teams to trade them for high paying positions. The powder thing was not fully explained in the article, but it seems unrelated to stealing the documents (i. e. purely out of spite).
  - gothicknight, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2I think it was his wife who did the 2nd.
- robert001, on 05/20/2008, -6/+4If you don't care about racing why would you want any notes?
- o0adam0o, on 05/20/2008, -0/+4curiosity maybe?
blarch, on 05/20/2008, -4/+2should have been titled "Unwitting Race Fan Aides Corporate Secrecy"
- HiddenCanuck, on 05/20/2008, -0/+4How about "Copy Shack Worker Demonstrates His Inability to Retire on Blackmail Payoffs"
Dopeness, on 05/20/2008, -18/+7Anyone else stop reading after noticing it was 8 pages long?
- Tenlow, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1No, I got to the bottom of the first page and clicked "Full Page".
gingerchris, on 05/20/2008, -1/+16Pretty basic UK geography mistakes there, Surrey IS a county and McLaren HQ is in it, not down the road from it.
KragTheDigger, on 05/20/2008, -1/+7..was expecting a link related to Mosley's sex scandal really... I mean the Stepneygate thing is a bit old by now!
- Cerebral, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2There was a blurb at the end about it:
  FTA: "For his part, Mosley finds himself embroiled in a scandal of his own. International headlines exploded in early April, when the British newspaper News of the World posted a video of him in an underground S&M "torture dungeon" in the Chelsea district of London. The FIA head, according to the paper, was conducting a bizarre five-hour "Nazi-style" orgy with five prostitutes, reenacting a concentration camp scene and spanking at least one women with a leather strap while counting out the strokes in German. (Mosley denies there was a Nazi theme and has filed a lawsuit against the paper.)"
  - zazzalicious, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2And one of the prostitutes is the wife of an MI5 agent... !
    '...an MI5 officer's wife was one of the prostitutes involved in the infamous sado-masochistic orgy with Max Mosley'
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnist ...
    - Cerebral, on 05/21/2008, -0/+1This is the story that this article should have been about. Sex, lies, nazi orgies... this is some good ***** here.
BarackOdrama, on 05/20/2008, -12/+3Someone with no job please summarize this...
- ace429k, on 05/20/2008, -4/+2iufgoufyljhfgflofyt7dfoufvhjj
  
  /dance
- maelnum, on 05/20/2008, -2/+2"Someone with no job please summarize this..."
  Bum shorten this.
NJank, on 05/20/2008, -16/+5sure it's for NASCAR, but this really sums it up:

http://www.bustedtees.com/boringnascar
- saxreturns, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2Oh wow, you really hit the nail on its side, sent it flying across the room and crushed your finger with the hammer there. Nice one.
- EarlOfLade, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1All you need to watch when it comes to NASCAR. is the last round. The rest is boring. Impossible to watch a complete race without falling asleep.
theStig, on 05/20/2008, -1/+50Thats what happens when you send your wife to do the job.
theStig, on 05/20/2008, -1/+52you would think that someone who can engineer a 1000lb 220mph F1 car that can drive upside down in a wind tunnel at full speed can cobble together a Fujitsu Snapscan, some OCR software, and a PC.
- maelnum, on 05/20/2008, -3/+1They probably could. But if they could engineer that car, why were they stealing the designs in the first place?
  - dignews, on 05/20/2008, -0/+5To take the information to the other team, the 780 pages had precise measurement about everything on the F1 car, its not some information that you can remember off the top of your head. Its years and years of designing and thousands upon thousands of hours testing each part in a wind tunnel.
jonny5, on 05/20/2008, -0/+62What kind of idiot would take such sensitive information to a public copy shop rather than do it privately...
- follower64, on 05/20/2008, -0/+32A woman
- Pixelpaws, on 05/20/2008, -2/+3Mr. Coughlan, apparently.
  - zazzalicious, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1Wrong... Mrs. Coughlan.
    - EarlOfLade, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1I'm sure she did not do it all on herself, in fact, I can imagine the conversation between Mr and Mrs where he tells her to go and get the copies made as he is too well known in the area. I'm sure neither one reflected upon the chances of anyone reacting. Just because you are a brilliant engineer, doesn't make you a brilliant criminal.
- twigboy, on 05/21/2008, -1/+2McLaren
RubineBoy, on 05/20/2008, -16/+6Comon dude ... This is too ***** long!
And by the way ... This guy should have posted these cd's on a torrent site or something so we could all build our own F1 to go to work. ***** fan ...
- ace429k, on 05/20/2008, -2/+1i agree that 8 pages is a lil long. but the text is pretty big so its only like...4 really.
- borez, on 05/20/2008, -1/+21I've heard that real books are even longer
  
  /sarcasm
- Fxer, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1You could build it if you had a few million dollars lying around and a few million more for litigation.
- MSP1, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1I didn't know that gnats could read!
- EarlOfLade, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1I see Ferrari has nothing to fear from you! 780 page technical spec? Hell no, way too long for me to read!
  Not interested unless what you have to read can fit on a cereal box.
PCloadLetterWTF, on 05/20/2008, -4/+6I was going to complain about the length, but then I rememberd this is the whole point of digg. Prevent me from doing something foolish like... be productive or listen in class.
kingmanic, on 05/20/2008, -1/+24You are only as strong as your weakest link. This story highlights how huge corporations and governments lose sensitive data, leak personal info, and have their security breached: They eventually hire idiots and let them have access. Firewalls, encryption, segmentation, or physical security all kneel before the power of idiots.
- dlowder, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2I dugg your comment for what I think should be the quote of the decade.... "... all kneel before the power of idiots."
  
  Gonna have to make that my .sig.....
iidestined, on 05/20/2008, -0/+5They should have been able to afford a copier at home.
- maelnum, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2Scanner not photocopier
kestrel7e7, on 05/20/2008, -9/+2Formula One needs to go electric. Seriously.
- dignews, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2seriously, no. F1 is fine as it is. The best sport in the world
poidh, on 05/20/2008, -13/+3FTA: "the legion who worshipped Ferrari's star F1 driver Michael Schumacher". I'm tired of the media hyping things up. Nobody _worships_ F1 drivers, ffs.
- piwy, on 05/20/2008, -1/+1Heheeh you must be new to the sport eh?
  We do worship F1 drivers. Not a bit of hype there.
  - poidh, on 05/21/2008, -1/+2Cool. Send me some pictures of the shrine you pray to, and also detail the routine you follow in worship.
    
    You, my friend, do not understand what "worship" means.
Akirajds, on 05/20/2008, -5/+0one word.... Doh!!
moofer, on 05/20/2008, -5/+8My A.D.D. hurts
- sfury, on 05/24/2008, -0/+1mine too but I finally read it after 2 days fierce battling :]
sstomek, on 05/20/2008, -1/+35Cliff Notes Part 1:

- Trudy Coughlan (wife of chief designer from the number one ranked McLaren at that time) walks into Document Image Processing with a 780 page book filled with schematic drawings, technical reports, pictures, and financial information. She wants this ***** scanned ASAP
- Uh oh, clerk just happens to be a huge Ferrari fan, so after she leaves he starts to Google.
- Then the article goes on to explain Formula 1 and how its about the car and not the driver (Interesting fact, "The downforce is so strong that the cars could theoretically drive upside down on the roof of the tunnel at Monte Carlo")
- Nigel Stepney was the head of Ferrari's mechanics, and when Ferrari's technical director Ross Brawn reported that he was stepping down from his position, Stepney really wanted that *****.
- Sorry Stepney, your no engineer, ***** you didn't even go to college...epic fail! In comes in a guy from human resources Mario Almondo with his fancy shmancy college degree.
- Stepney goes emo, says he does not want to travel with the team anymore. Instead he wants to work at the factory. He looses it one day and puts powder into one of Ferrari's F1 cars that were being prepared for the Monaco Grand Prix. He got caught and arrested.
- After raiding Stepney's house twice, police found on his laptop that he had printed the 780 page report that "constituted "technical documents for designing, engineering, building, checking, testing, developing, and running a Formula One racing car." These included schematic drawings, technical reports, photographs, budget sheets, planning materials, and more." Sound familiar?
- stay tuned for part 2
- sstomek, on 05/20/2008, -0/+19- Ron Dennis's, McLaren's chair, CEO, life was going perfect. At 60 years old he couldn't ask for more. Unfortunately, he hired that ass of a clown Michael Coughlan with that skank wife of his...
  - So it seems Coughlan and Stepney were all buddy buddy back in the day. When Stepney calls Coughlan one day crying like a little bitch, Coughlan tells him that he will be his shoulder to cry on, and while hes using that shoulder could he just forward that priceless 780 page doc to his email
  - Coughlan shows his superior two photos from the report after which he asks where the ***** he got that ***** from and to get rid of it nowz.
  - Coughlan and Stepney don't understand...wtf!? let's try to go to Honda.Coughlan would be chief designer, and Stepney would be technical director, or vice versa.
  - Honda says nay, they wanted like a bajillion dollars, "silly money"
  - After that Stepney was accused of attempting to sabotage a Ferrari car. Then Trudy Coughlan stepped into the copy shop in Surrey, and the scandal exploded into the Formula One world.
  - zazzalicious, on 05/20/2008, -1/+3***** happened...
    - publiclurker, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2Thanks. I was about to ask for a Cliffs Notes of the above post.
- iblaine, on 05/20/2008, -0/+5Thanks. Saved me the effort of reading that far-too-lengthy article...mad propz to u for doing a cliff notes version
- sgglynn, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1Thank you, I quit after page 4 and hoped i'd find something like this in the comments
borez, on 05/20/2008, -1/+52That was long, but well worth the read
- culbeda, on 05/20/2008, -3/+1Then please summarize it for the lazy bastards who don't care about F1 enough to want to read an 8 page article about it.
  
  /Lost interest after first page
rodon, on 05/20/2008, -1/+11Yes. Well worth the read. I wonder who's going to sell the movie rights.
Sillywombat, on 05/20/2008, -9/+3GOOD ARTICLE, but too much trivia, it starts with the story, then goes on to rant for about 10 pages on the histroy of F1. with the end of the story hidden somewhere at the end.
aaron.dunlap, on 05/20/2008, -8/+3"hey this is a really interesting.... 8 PAGES???? ... (close)"
- Pixelpaws, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1There's an option to put it all on one page.
Zcott, on 05/20/2008, -0/+47Wow, F1 on the front page! Diggers, I give you some credit.
cloud4197, on 05/20/2008, -0/+48It's a rare thing to find a decent researched article like this on the web these days.
Well done WIRED
emptyo, on 05/20/2008, -0/+20I thought that was a really fascinating article. Really well written and thorough. Bravo, wired.
maelnum, on 05/20/2008, -1/+14Don't like 8 pages? try this:
http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/magazine/16-0 ...
- w3v3, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2Touche!
wipis, on 05/20/2008, -0/+5I knew most of this story since I've followed it for a while (since it happened last season). But I was surprised the whistle was blow by a copy tech in some store near the McLaren HQ.
cesclaveria, on 05/20/2008, -0/+16I'm not a big racing fan but that article was really well written and fun to read.
It helped me to pass the time while oracle decides to finish something I asked for about 4 hours ago :(
- EarlOfLade, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2Something tells me your system and SQL is in serious need of some tuning. And that something is 20 years of Oracle experience.
akatsuki, on 05/20/2008, -3/+3This actually was pretty interesting, and I think car racing is about the most useless thing there is.
spydergt488, on 05/20/2008, -1/+5Beautiful article. A scandal like this puts NFL Spygate to shame. Ahh well, as has been said:

"Cheaters never win, but losers always suck."
desmondageratte, on 05/20/2008, -0/+3OMG For the first time in my history I read through all the pages. The longest internet article I've read.
Very informative though. I'm not a F1 fan but now at least I know what's happening in car racing.
karolisonline, on 05/20/2008, -0/+6GREAT article. it is long, usually I don't (I think most of us) read articles like this to the end, but this was really interesting story. story like mini james bond or mini neocon sotry..
karolisonline, on 05/20/2008, -1/+5by the way. story is very typical: man who worked for Ferrari all his productive life and build grate mechanic team doesn't get engineer head position because it is given to some guy from HR??? and why? because he doesn't have university degree. so Ferrari gave position to some "NASA" guy? NO. they gave it to some human resources guy with university degree in ***** specialization. Ferrari deserved that. (sorry for second comment after first)
dignews, on 05/20/2008, -5/+8I love how the article says "22 drivers from 11 teams go around complex circuits at 200 miles per hour". Complex?? well yeh I suppose they maybe complex if you watch nascar or drag racing all the time. But the circuits they go around are proper circuits which actually test driver ability and how a driver can use a steering wheel, 1000hp and a brake to the maximum.
- greenamp, on 05/20/2008, -1/+2Have you ever even seen a typical F1 racing circuit? Here I'll do the leg work for you:
  
  http://images.google.com/images?client=safari&rls= ...
  
  They are pretty damned complex for cars traveling 150-220mph.
  - dignews, on 05/20/2008, -4/+1im a racing driver myself, so im quite familiar with racing circuits and f1 circuits. A good driver could go around a brand new track he had never seen before and within 6 laps he would know each corner and would be up to speed with the other drivers.
    - eliezerlp, on 05/25/2008, -0/+1Oh... I see,
      
      you're an F1 driver
      [end sarcasm]
austin006, on 05/20/2008, -7/+2it really seems strange how this could have happened..:
the guy printed the 780 pages off his laptop?
then needed them scanned and put back onto digital media???
and the chief designer for maclaren got his WIFE to take care of it through a public place?????
............
somebody needs to hire a new scandal-planner

is this not the most ridiculous ass-backward plan you've ever heard?

the part that gets me is the need for these pages to be scanned and put onto CD when they were PRINTED OFF A LAPTOP IN THE FIRST PLACE. WTF
Sharky35, on 05/20/2008, -6/+1Luckily the article is only 779 pages long.
- BossKey, on 05/24/2008, -0/+1Which article did you read? I read the one with the "Full Page" button...so it was only one page long.
burketo, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2Coughlan: i need you to scan these pages and put them on a cd. actually it will take 2 cd's.

wife: sure thing honey. (not a chance!)

(some time later)

coughlan: one of these days Trudy....bang, zoom, straight to the moon!
bmcnally, on 05/20/2008, -0/+4I just read 8 pages on something that I have never actually watched. And I enjoyed it.
cuoops, on 05/20/2008, -2/+16Terrible F1 accident - http://pong.no/~opyrt/Terrible-F1-accident.jpg
- MercFox1, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1Wow! That thing got completely FLIPPED!
mrogi, on 05/20/2008, -7/+2If Americans gave a ***** about Formula One racing this would be a fascinating story.
- EarlOfLade, on 05/20/2008, -1/+3No, it's too complex for an American...
  But that said, it's the most watched sport world wide, each race has an audience between 1,5 and 2 BILLION viewers. So, for F1, USA is a tiny market.
- iamvahe, on 05/20/2008, -1/+2Because the world revolves around Americans right?
- SpeedyG, on 05/21/2008, -0/+5Hey, we American F1 fans do exist, y'know. We hate the circle driving, too.
  
  Although I would much prefer it if I didn't have to get up before dawn or pull an all-nighter to catch the majority of races.
  
  (By the way, why the hell does Bernie threaten European tracks that he'll take them off the calendar, then go to Asia and insist they set their race times to make the Europeans happy?)
vdd13, on 05/20/2008, -0/+6Bravo Wired and Bravo Digg for this article. Nice to see F1 on Digg.
chance1376, on 05/20/2008, -1/+2Cue Arlen Specter calling for a Congressional Committee to look into this in 3 2 oh wait. . .
monkiboi, on 05/20/2008, -1/+6More proof of how NASCAR sucks.
bododavid, on 05/20/2008, -0/+4After reading this article, I decided to check out F1. I now it is little bit counter-intuitive to get into a sport right after a massive scandal taints its integrity, but it can't be worse than baseball. Right?
- dreambucket, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2To someone who has watched a good bit of F1, it's not counter-intuitive. The portion of the article "The difference between the fastest and slowest car is perhaps three or even four seconds per lap. So the fastest driver in the slowest car would still be nowhere, whereas the slowest driver in the fastest car would be quite successful." is very true. Given that fact plus the difficulty to pass (on the track) can make some races snooze fests.
  
  Scandal is the most interesting thing in F1 these days.
  - duke1981, on 05/21/2008, -0/+2Watching Sato in his Super Aguri car pass Alonso in Canada was more interesting than the scandal.
Bloomonster, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2Great Story! gave me somethin to do at work. haha, but yea, I feel all clued in now> :- )
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Inside the Scandal That Rocked the Formula One Racing World

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