Full Throttle

What the hell, has Bernie and Mad Max been usurped by Ian Fleming?

First up is ‘Stepneygate’ where Ferrari employee Nigel Stepney was under criminal investigation in Italy. Speculation is Stepney tried his hand at sabotage by dumping a “white powder” into the fuel tanks of the Prancing Horses.

During the ensuing investigation Di Polizia in Italy raided Stepney’s house, and it was reported that they had taken away a canister for later examination.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and Autosport breaks a story that Mike Coughlan, McLaren’s chief designer, is suspected of espionage against Ferrari.

Coughlin is suspected of obtaining technical material belonging to Ferrari, wait for it…

… in cahoots with the aforementioned Nigel Stepney. Oh, the tangled webs they weave!

Under normal conditions, assuming that’s a valid tern to apply to F1 which is a stretch, I’d label the Mad Max & Bernie show The World is Not Enough. Given Bernie’s headlong expansion into Asia the title fits.

But I’m, struggling with Stepney-CoughlanGate.

For Your Eyes Only would be apropos if the plot had not been uncovered, but it has. And besides, there is no Bibi Dahl in the plot.

Following that logic, Honey Ryder hasn’t been named as part of the intrigue (Unless Kimi named his Ferrari that after Sunday’s win) so that negates Dr. No as an option.

For the lack of anything better I’m going with Moonraker. Not that the 11^th James Bond film has any connections to the current F1 controversy, it just had the best character name ever, Holly Goodhead!