Formula One news

DC defends McLaren over espionage claims

David Coulthard has expressed sympathy to his old team McLaren and team principal Ron Dennis over the whole espionage affair. The 36-year-old, who spent nine years at the Woking-based outfit, believes that such wrongdoing is below his former boss.

Moreover, unlike some critics, the outspoken Scotsman thinks that the saga does not fall into the 'all publicity is good publicity' category as the sport should not need to rely on such cynical means of promotion, particularly with Hamilton-mania.

The Red Bull said in his column for itv-f1.com: "In my view the whole saga is disappointing. This isn't a Hollywood movie where when you get to the end credits it's the end of the story. This could have a long-lasting damaging effect to the integrity of the sport.

"The spin doctors will say there is no such thing as bad publicity, and that if it gets columns inches in newspapers and magazines then it alerts more people to F1. But I think the sport is strong in its media coverage right now and the type of companies that invest in F1 consider any whiff of insider trading on technology to be a taboo subject.

"I don't doubt Ron Dennis and McLaren's position on it. They are too clever and their integrity is too high to be involved in that. As to who's responsible and how far it goes, it will all come out in time I'm sure."

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