McLaren engineer fired on eve of F1

On the eve of the new Formula One season – the first Grand Prix of 2008 is in Melbourne this weekend – McLaren, the team for which Lewis Hamilton drives, have finally dismissed their chief designer Mike Coughlan, the British engineer at the heart of the spy scandal that ended with the F1 team being fined £49.3m and losing last year's constructor’s title.

Coughlan had been under suspension since last July when a 780-page dossier on Ferrari cars was found at his home, but he remained on staff for legal reasons. A fellow British engineer, Ferarri performance director Nigel Stepney, was sacked that month for allegedly passing on the information to Coughlan.

Since then Stepney has admitted giving information to Coughlan but has denied that that included the 780-page technical document on Ferrari cars. McLaren apologised in September, acknowledging that some Ferrari information had been disclosed directly, or indirectly, to people within the company.

Coughlan's dismissal comes days after the FIA - F1's governing body - issued a directive to teams not to hire Stepney, effectively banning him from the sport, until July 2009. The FIA has not charged Stepney for his part in the scandal, although both he and Coughlan are continuing legal action in Italy. McLaren spokeswoman Ellen Kolby confirmed that Coughlan had been sacked: "For legal reasons I can't tell you when, but I can tell you it's been terminated."

Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton, the young British driver who came within a whisker of winning the driver's title in his debut season, will be trying to put the McLaren-Ferrari scandal out of his mind as he tries to make amends for last year's mistakes on the home stretch. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen is once again the rival to beat, but at least he won't be sparring with his erstwhile teammate Fernando Alonso: he is now racing with Renault, in a slower car.