After a day of deliberating and hearing arguments from both sides of the “spygate” scandal the World Motor Sport Council has fined McLaren-Mercedes $100 million and stripped them of all their 2007 constructors’ points. They have decided that the McLaren-Mercedes team has used secret technical documents acquired from Ferrari’s Nigel Stepney. The team must also prove there is no Ferrari “intellectual property” in their cars next year before the 2008 F1 season. A full report outlining the FIA’s reasoning behind the verdict will be published tomorrow (Friday 14th September 2007).

Thankfully Lewis Hamilton and teammate Fernando Alonso have been allowed to keep their drivers’ championship points and therefore their chances of winning the F1 2007 championship are still alive. However the cost to the team is huge and to be honest we think unfair. In a year where Lewis Hamilton has single handed doubled the TV ratings for the previously dying sport and breathed new life and new fans we fail to see why the FIA would impose such a severe penalty and tarnish the reputation of Formula 1 after such a successful year.

The last thing that McLaren-Mercedes and indeed Formula 1 needs right now is this sort of bad publicity, it could potentially have a huge impact on sponsorships, endorsements and earnings. The fine - which is the biggest in the history of F1 - represents around a quarter of the $400 million annual budget of McLaren-Mercedes and will surely result in cutbacks for the team. Unless the shortfall can be generated from new sponsors or maybe Mercedes, their engine supplier for the past 12 years.

In a statement to journalists after the decision was made public, McLaren-Mercedes boss Ron Dennis said that he “did not accept” the decision to punish his team.

“The most important thing is that we will be going motor racing this weekend, the rest of the season and every season. This means that our drivers can continue to compete for the World Championship. However having been at the hearing today I do not accept that we deserved to be penalized in this way”, Ron Dennis said in a public statement.

Ron also went on to say that once the FIA publishes its full findings he will decide wether to launch an appeal, he also added that he thought they had “grounds for appeal”.