Renault say no McLaren data in their cars

Former champions Renault hit back at allegations of spying yesterday, saying their cars were untainted by any data from Formula One rivals McLaren.

They also said that a former McLaren engineer who joined them in September last year had been suspended as soon as they became aware that he had brought confidential technical information with him.

Renault were summoned on Thursday to appear before a hearing of the governing body in Monaco on Dec. 6 to answer a charge of unauthorised possession of McLaren data.

Mercedes-powered McLaren were themselves stripped of all their constructors' points this season and fined $100 million for having highly sensitive Ferrari information.

Renault named their suspended employee as Phil Mackereth and said they had been made aware of the problem on Sept. 6, the Thursday before the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

It said the information had been "contained on old-style floppy discs and included copies of some McLaren engineering drawings and some technical spreadsheets.

"This information was loaded at the request of Mr Mackereth onto his personal directory on the Renault F1 Team file system," it added.

"This was done without the knowledge of anyone in authority in the team."

Renault said the information had been cleansed from the computer systems as soon as the matter was brought to their attention and a formal investigation started.