Fake But Accurate in Paris
We sit three days away from the second Paris hearing in F1’s Stepney-gate scandal and it looks as if some of the “new evidence” is actually based on the thin air contained within a “journalists” head.
La Gazzetta dello Sport published an email they claimed was sent from Pedro de la Rosa to McLaren’s Fernando Alonso: “Do you know that I’ve found out how Ferrari is able to get its tires to work to perfection?” de la Rosa said.
“Nigel Stepney told Mike Coughlan.”
“I don’t believe it,” Alonso replied.
The journalist, Italian Pino Allievi, made up the exchange from whole cloth. “I made a free interpretation of what might have been said in the email,” he told AP, insisting that the hypothetical nature of the drivers’ dialog was mentioned on his article published on Friday.
He also confessed to concocting the exchange in order to make his article about the existence of the email “more credible”.
So “Mr. Journalist,” does that mean the phrase made infamous by Dan “Fake but Accurate” Rather be amended to read: “Fake but more credible?”
Nigel Stepney, McLaren, Ferrari, F1, Formula One, Sports, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle
Well if nothing else this journo will be enjoying the pasta in the Ferrari hospitality suite for a while.
This is why I have been eager to wait until Thursday to get to the bottom of the whole thing. There is so much b/s & idle speculation going around you don’t know what to believe. If nothing else PDLR should sue for defamation, lies about him were published.When they get worked up, the Italian press is almost as bad as the Brits.
And you really trust the “brain trust” hold up in their plush Parisian offices to get to the truth?
Can I sell you a bucket full of “carbon credits?”
Thursday is going to be interesting, should McLaren be exonerated a 2nd time Max is going to appear as vindictive.
McLaren has as much chance of getting exonerated as I have getting elected Pope. The hearing is only a formality, the only question open is how hard they slam McLaren.