McLaren raise ante in spying row

Renault will answer charges of possessing McLaren information

McLaren have accused Renault of possessing their team information and gaining an "unfair advantage" from it.

The BBC has seen a McLaren dossier that says the information was "knowingly and widely disseminated" within Renault.

McLaren were fined $100m (£47.5m) and thrown out of the constructors' championship after being found guilty on a similar charge in September.

Renault face a hearing next month on a charge of unauthorised possession of confidential McLaren information.

Motorsport's governing body the FIA says the information includes "the layout and critical dimensions of the McLaren F1 car, fuelling system, gear assembly, oil cooling system, hydraulic control system and a novel suspension component used by the 2006 and 2007 cars".

The BBC has learned that McLaren's dossier - which has been submitted to the FIA - includes 18 witness statements in which Renault F1 employees admit that they viewed confidential technical information belonging to McLaren.

McLaren also contend that 33 files belonging to the team, containing more than 780 individual drawings outlining the entire technical blueprint of the 2006 and 2007 McLaren F1 cars, were loaded onto Renault's computer system in September 2006.

McLaren's dossier states that the files were discussed by up to 18 Renault F1 personnel, including a group of senior engineering chiefs and heads of department.

Renault recently said that former McLaren employee Phil Mackereth had loaded some team information onto their F1 file system "without the knowledge of anyone in authority in the team".

Renault also invited McLaren's independent experts to assess the team's computer systems and inspect the cars and design records, to demonstrate there had been no influence on the design of the cars.

Following a formal internal investigation, Mackereth was suspended by Renault and the floppy disks were returned to McLaren.

McLaren's solicitors, Baker McKenzie, have also complained in writing to Renault's solicitors, Withers, of a "cavalier attitude" on the part of senior Renault personnel during the investigation.

Further complaints relate to a number of written responses from Renault personnel that are "incomplete" or "misleading".

A Renault spokesman said: "We will be making no further comment until the hearing of December 6."