F1 warning for McLaren

McLaren have been warned they could start the 2008 Formula One season on minus points if any Ferrari ideas are found in the design for their new car.

Lewis Hamilton's team were thrown out of this year's World Constructors Championship for their part in the so-called 'spygate' saga.

And FIA president Max Mosley has been quoted as saying: "That (Ferrari data) was in the hands of the chief designer at precisely the moment he was designing the 2008 McLaren. The difficulty we have is that you're not going to find on the McLaren a part that was designed by Ferrari.

"What you may find are ideas and at this level of technology at this level of motorsport, if the idea is given to the chief designer he will make a component utilising that idea which bears no relation at all to the component perhaps being used by the other car.

"So we will be looking for the ideas. The investigation will be thorough, it will use outside experts and we will do everything we possibly can to make sure that either of the McLarens has no element of Ferrari intellectual property in it or if it does we will then have to consider taking some sort of action.

"That would not necessarily be preventing them from running. It would be more likely that they would be given a negative point allocation."

He added: "Finding something will not be easy. On the other hand, there are sources we are going to deploy who will give us as good a chance as its possible to have to find it."

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