Criminal F1

[Dino IV]

There was a lot of talk about Renault engines being stolen back in 1995 in the 'Briatore' thread of BBKing. As I wanted to post some more on this I just didn't want to hijack the thread so figured to start a new one.

I 'Googled' around and bit and found the following:

CASE 1: The espionage at Renault during the 2001 pre-season.

Illien knew of F1 espionage 17 July 2001
The boss of McLaren's Mercedes engine manufacturer's Ilmor, Mario Illien, has revealed he was aware of the technical espionage from which Benetton engine suppliers Renault are suffering.
Renault technical director Jean-Jacques His revealed that computer hackers had stolen designs last year and left the French company struggling, and admitted that the designs could be on the black market.

Now Illien, whose company has produced some of the most successful engines in the sport of recent years, has admitted he knows of approaches from people offering engine designs to teams on the Grand Prix grid.

"Yes, I've heard of this," revealed Illien. "It has been circulating that there are drawings and information for sale. But I didn't know if it was from Renault or anyone else.

"I've heard they could be asking for very big money but frankly I would steer clear of anything like this and I can't imagine any team in Formula One getting involved."

Illien would not reveal who told him or who has spoken to him about it, but did add: "It is someone related to the business."

CASE 2: The break-in at the McLaren garage at the 1996 Brazilian GP.

APRIL 8, 1996 Break-in at McLaren
THE McLaren garage in Buenos Aires was broken into last week and one of the Mercedes V10 engines was tampered with by someone who knew exactly what it was they were looking for. The Mercedes V10 - which is built by Ilmor Engineering - features a variable trumpet system and it seems that someone is keen to know more about it.

CASE 3: The theft of two Renault engines in 1995(?).

This sort of espionage is not new in F1. A couple of years ago two Renault V10 engines were stolen from separate motor shows in France and never traced, and there are often suggestions that information is moved from one team to another in exchange for money.
(from the same article as above)

Uh, crimes and misdemeanours in F1.

Anyone any more info or more stuff in this category?

[Gt_R]

I guess that's what make F1 such an exciting sports! Have we ever heard somebody stole Wood's golf clubs to find out more of new "putting technology", or that somebody stole World Cup balls to see how much "rounder" the opposition balls are?

Sure, it aint gonna do F1 reputation much good...but its classic detective stuffs~



How about a couple of team (Jaguar?) having their engineers top secret laptop stitched from under their noses?

[marcus]

dont know about any thefts..but i remember back in 1991 when Ilmor were about to make their debut in F1 with the leyton House March team at Pheonix in the USA..the team arrived at the garages ready for qualifying only to find that someone had broken into their garage and cut the brake lines on their cars in an effort to slow them down (or not slow them down as the case could have been) in preparing for qualifying.

thankfully the team realized what was going on before the cars went out onto the track to impending disaster.

but just another case of the sort of lengths that some people (who i dont know) will go to to try and get an advantage.

[Nicholas]

That's just plain unacceptable

Oh, Minardi had their tyres nicked at Brazil too.

[Liz]

One more example of how sportsmanship has gone out the window and "win at all costs" replaced it. Lie, cheat and steal your way to the top and nobody will ask how you got there, just try to knock you off the mountain using crooked and unethical techniques as well....

Do people do this in other forms of racing, or is this just a Formula One thing?

[JeremySmith]

Liz..To some degree I think this happens in most sports,wether it's tweaking of cars or the rules..We reflect on the good old days, but I feel it has allways been the same..Look at athletes, how many times have they been found to be taking illegal drugs..What about Bill Gates and Microsoft is that fair? does anyone care about "fair" any more , sadly I do not think the average person gives a toss.

Regards....Jeremy

[I Ate Yoko Ono]

Does anyone remember when pit to car telemetry adjustments wer banned as a number of teams believed rivals were trying to send signals to their engines to spike engine mixture an so on?

I love the espionage aspect of F1, it adds another dimension, even if an unsavoury one to many followers of the sport.

Colin Chapman of Lotus was suspected (although never proven) to have been involved in drug smuggling and fraud with John De Lorean in an effort to keep funs for his team flowing.

A top BMW privateer team from the British Touring Car Championship were caught smuggling cocaine inside I think it was either fire extinguishers or compressed air cylinders. the team boss was convicted.

[OVERSTEER]

I ate yoko ono, u will be refering to Vic lee the Boss of the top privateer BMW BTCC Team, now leading Peugeots challenge in the BTCC.

[Sodemo]

Do you remember the telemetry we used to get on the TV while watching F1? (Gear, speed, throttle, brake) wasn't that removed as teams thought it gave the opposition information on their cars - I refer the the incident when M Schu was stuck in 5th gear and Hill was catching - I think ??

[Don K]

Originally posted by Gt_R


I guess that's what make F1 such an exciting sports! Have we ever heard somebody stole Wood's golf clubs to find out more of new "putting technology", or that somebody stole World Cup balls to see how much "rounder" the opposition balls are?

Hockey (on grass, not on ice), early '70s:
Dutch top scorer Thies Kruize claimed he had taken some hockey sticks from German top scorer Krause (sp?), at a time when Germany and the Netherlands where favourites for the World Cup (or Champions Trophey, or Summer Olympics?).
Both players had specialized in penalty corners, and Kruize thought Krause had better equipment...

[snakepit27]

well as i type this i am sure something is going on that is illegal that we do not know about in the F1 world..