McLaren clarify Renault spy allegations

By Alan Baldwin

LONDON (Reuters) - McLaren have had to clarify allegations of spying against Formula One rivals Renault on the eve of a hearing in Monaco that could impose heavy sanctions on the French team.

The team said on Wednesday they had been asked by the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) to correct 'certain factual errors' in a background briefing to British reporters.

"In our briefing, we stated that there were 18 witness statements from Renault employees admitting that they had viewed McLaren confidential information," said a statement.

"To the extent that this implied that 18 different Renault employees admitted viewing McLaren confidential information it was inaccurate.

"Thirteen Renault F1 employees provided 18 witness statements and nine of them have so far admitted they viewed and discussed the confidential technical information belonging to McLaren."

McLaren said it was also wrong to say that the information was loaded onto 11 Renault computers. In fact, it was copied onto 11 computer disks by former McLaren employee Phil Mackereth.

"A back-up copy of the material on Mr Mackereth's personal directory was made onto an unknown number of Renault's back-up servers/tapes," it added.

MCLAREN ERROR