Ferrari Spying on Mercedes

[owenmahamilton]

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merce ... -abu-dhabi

If she had not been wearing Ferrari gear they would have been more likely to get away with it.

[Covalent]

I think the word "spying" is too harsh. Granted she could've chosen her location better, but if a team has a car on track there's nothing (legal or otherwise) stopping people (including other teams) taking photographs or even thermal camera footage.
Am I also spying on them when I watch the races?

[stevey]

I think its a bit cheeky, but they aren't going to get much from it at this stage.

Possibly what she would of captured could possibly be heat levels on a motionless car, how the heat dissipates, how much heat goes into the tyre from mercs next year, but being a motionless car means that would be a little inconclusive.

Notice how no one bothers to spy on Ferrari

[AngusWolfe]

I think its a bit cheeky, but they aren't going to get much from it at this stage.

Possibly what she would of captured could possibly be heat levels on a motionless car, how the heat dissipates, how much heat goes into the tyre from mercs next year, but being a motionless car means that would be a little inconclusive.

Notice how no one bothers to spy on Ferrari

McLaren did.

[Saz]

I think the word "spying" is too harsh. Granted she could've chosen her location better, but if a team has a car on track there's nothing (legal or otherwise) stopping people (including other teams) taking photographs or even thermal camera footage.
Am I also spying on them when I watch the races?

Yup pretty much this. I know its off season but do we really have to start with the sensationalist headlines less than a week after the last race?

All teams are looking at everyone elses cars - video footage, pictures, infra-red cameras etc. This has been the case for a long time and will remain the case.

Mercedes are well within their rights to ask her to stop of course!

[mds]

Was she allowed to be there?
Was she allowed to hold a heat cam in her hands?

If "yes" two times, then I see no reason to make something out of this.

[A2jdl]

its not nearly as bad as Merc team hiring a suite above the pits on the Mclaren filming day at Silverstone!

[tootsie323]

I think its a bit cheeky, but they aren't going to get much from it at this stage.

Possibly what she would of captured could possibly be heat levels on a motionless car, how the heat dissipates, how much heat goes into the tyre from mercs next year, but being a motionless car means that would be a little inconclusive.

Notice how no one bothers to spy on Ferrari

McLaren did.

Yeah - look how quick both of those cars are!

[mac_d]

It's hardly spying when you stand in the open wearing the uniform of your team right above them. This reeks of a story being pumped up and exaggerated to me. IR camera or not, this wasn't James Bond stuff. This seems like it is barely news.

[Fiki]

"Excuse me miss, please refrain from dropping lens caps onto our cars next time. Thank you."

Much as I like to poke fun at Ferrari, I find it ludicrous to accuse them of spying, when all the lady was doing was checking the Mercedes team members' temperatures in these ebola-conscious times.

Just the same, I shall be on the look-out for blonde spies wearing Ferrari team gear in the next James Bond film. One simply cannot be too careful.

[sandman1347]

It's hardly spying when you stand in the open wearing the uniform of your team right above them. This reeks of a story being pumped up and exaggerated to me. IR camera or not, this wasn't James Bond stuff. This seems like it is barely news.

Yeah it's like a spy wearing a CIA t-shirt lol

[Clarky]

If she is spying then she needs a new job because she is s**t at it haha.

[shoot999]

If its not spying; what word describes what she was up to? One of the definitions of spying is 'One employed by a company to obtain confidential information about a competitor'. Spying doesn't necessarily have to be covert.

[Covalent]

If its not spying; what word describes what she was up to? One of the definitions of spying is 'One employed by a company to obtain confidential information about a competitor'. Spying doesn't necessarily have to be covert.

At least Merriam-Webster explicitly describes it as a secretive act.

[James14]

Reminds me of:

[Covalent]

Reminds you of "Warning do not hotlink images and steal bandwidth"?

[RaggedMan]

If its not spying; what word describes what she was up to? One of the definitions of spying is 'One employed by a company to obtain confidential information about a competitor'. Spying doesn't necessarily have to be covert.

Surveilence? Reconnaissance? Inquisitiveness?

I think reconnaissance fits best.

[Herb]

Maybe she's better than you think. Maybe she's actually from Red Bull.

[dizlexik]

It's up to teams to hide their secrets on a track. Everyone can take pictures.

[j man]

All the teams spy on each other in this way. Total non-story this.

[Prema]

Just checking out his future ride... 3 years before..

[moby]

I have little doubt Merc had a team looking at everyone else's car too

[Asphalt_World]

Blimey, Mercedes would have had their designers and engineers looking at all cars, even the Caterhams this year, because even a slow car may have a design feature or two on them that may improve a top car with decent development.

This is such a none story. Indeed, the fact she's not hiding her employers by wearing such clothing shows how it really isn't spying at all.

[specdecible]

[bighobbo10]

It looks too obvious you can probably say she might even be a decoy.

[DrJones]

All the engineering directors,journalists and fans do exactly the same thing.Adrian Newy always used to walk the garages and make sketches in his notebook on other teams developments.Each car has a different development path not all ideas can be used on all cars....However if all cars become similar this is good for the racing,fans, and the sport?

[dizlexik]

All the engineering directors,journalists and fans do exactly the same thing.Adrian Newy always used to walk the garages and make sketches in his notebook on other teams developments.Each car has a different development path not all ideas can be used on all cars....However if all cars become similar this is good for the racing,fans, and the sport?

Yes.

This is good example of "spying": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZB1kDgikFM

[VDV23]

All the engineering directors,journalists and fans do exactly the same thing.Adrian Newy always used to walk the garages and make sketches in his notebook on other teams developments.Each car has a different development path not all ideas can be used on all cars....However if all cars become similar this is good for the racing,fans, and the sport?

Yes.

This is good example of "spying": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZB1kDgikFM

By the way, I'm pretty sure the guy "spying" for McLaren works for Ferrari now. At least he did in 2012-2013. However, it proved a tough task to find his name as understandably he wasn't the top hit in google when the search words were "Ferrari, McLaren, spying"