The 2007 F1 season featured one of the biggest intra-team controversies in the sport’s history as rookie Lewis Hamilton pushed Fernando Alonso to his limits, leading to chaos at McLaren. Behind the scenes, the Woking-based team made significant blunders and became embroiled in one of the largest scandals in F1 history: Spygate.
During the Hungarian GP that weekend, Alonso had a major clash with then-McLaren boss Ron Dennis. In qualifying, the Spaniard held Hamilton in the pit lane for over 10 seconds, costing the Briton valuable time. As a result, Hamilton couldn’t complete another lap in the closing stages, while Alonso went on to secure pole position.
While Dennis’ furious reaction initially seemed justified, it was later revealed that McLaren was supposed to instruct Hamilton to let Alonso pass earlier in the session. Holding Alonso back was Hamilton’s way of expressing his anger to the team.
After the session, Alonso and Dennis had a heated exchange. Former Communications Director at McLaren Matt Bishop revealed, “Alonso threatened to send to the FIA his email exchanges with McLaren’s then-test driver Pedro de la Rosa.”
Bishop used the word ‘allegedly’ repeatedly because he had not heard what happened himself. These were Dennis’ version of events, he insisted. But it was significant because Alonso threatening to leak those emails started a chain reaction which would lead to the Spygate scandal and McLaren being fined $100 million.
Why Alonso’s email was significant
In his email exchanges with De la Rosa, Alonso discussed the weight and other specifics of Ferrari’s car that year — details Ron Dennis may or may not have known. But in an attempt to neutralize Alonso’s threat, Dennis made the bold decision to call FIA president Max Mosley directly and bring the situation to his attention.
However, Dennis made a critical mistake by claiming that “there were actually no emails,” which immediately raised the FIA’s suspicions. Once the emails were uncovered, they confirmed what the governing body had long suspected — that McLaren had been exchanging confidential information with Ferrari.
This all began when disgruntled former Ferrari employee Nigel Stepney, after being fired, handed over 780 pages of classified Ferrari documents to McLaren engineer Mike Coughlan. The situation took a turn when Coughlan’s wife brought the documents to a copy shop, where an employee — a Ferrari fan — recognized the significance of the material and contacted the authorities.
Although Ferrari was enraged, they chose not to press charges. Instead, they asked Coughlan to surrender all the documents and cooperate. Unfortunately for McLaren, Dennis’ mention of the emails prompted the FIA to reopen its investigation, ultimately leading to a record $100 million fine — the largest in F1 history.
