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Flavio Briatore wants McLaren excluded:

Renault boss Flavio Briatore has called for McLaren to be excluded from the Formula One world championship over their part in the spy scandal that has rocked the sport. McLaren have repeatedly denied that they gained any advantage from sacked Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney providing them with 780 pages of confidential Ferrari information. Last week a World Motorsport Council hearing found it could not be proven that McLaren had benefited from the dossier leaked to them and consequently enforced no penalty on the British team. But speaking to Italian media here, Briatore criticised that decision and even suggested that McLaren had knowledge of Ferrari data earlier than March this year, the widely accepted start date of the 'Stepney affair'. Briatore points at McLaren's smooth transition from Michelin tyres to Bridgestone, a change that has caused his own team no end of trouble. "Last winter, I was saying how lucky McLaren are to be immediately that quick on Bridgestone tyres," Briatore said. "I'm a lucky guy, so it's okay for other people to be as well. We, on the other hand, were in full crisis mode: Michelin's retirement turned out to be a disaster for Renault. Cliquez ici... " "It's evident that they (McLaren) had the data on the weight distribution by Ferrari, who used Bridgestone tyres for almost ten years. That page in the famous stolen dossier would have been enough to save months of work and to find the solution immediately." Briatore considers Renault an 'injured party' in the spy case that he believes has tainted the 2007 season. "Yes, and not just for us and Ferrari, but for everyone else. Here is a team that acquired an advantage illegally," he added. The Italian was just as forthright when asked what sanctions should be taken against McLaren. "Just read the regulations: for intellectual property theft the punishment is exclusion," he advised. This week Ferrari has been granted an appeal against the World Motorsport Council ruling. Their case will be heard by the FIA Court of Appeal, most probably at the end of this month in Paris.