(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-02-29 14:14

MILAN - Useful evidence connected to Formula One's spy scandal has been collected from McLaren which shows where responsibilities lie, Italian police said on Thursday.

McLaren executives were questioned by Italian investigators in Britain on Wednesday as part of a legal probe into the team obtaining Ferrari technical information last year.

McLaren's British Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton takes part in a test session at the Catalonia racetrack in Montmelo near Barcelona. Senior figures at McLaren have been interviewed by Italian investigators a part of Formula One's ongoing spying scandal. [Agencies]

Material taken from the team "will fit into the ample picture of evidence" from which "clearly emerges the responsibilities of the management and some technicians at a high level in McLaren", a police statement said.

Giuseppe Tibis, a prosecutor in Ferrari's home province of Modena, launched the legal investigation which led to Wednesday's events.

Police said they went to McLaren Technology Centre and the homes of McLaren team principal Ron Dennis, chief executive Martin Whitmarsh, engineering director Paddy Lowe and senior employees Jonathan Neale and Rob Taylor.

McLaren said on Wednesday the police "were completely satisfied with the co-operation they have received".

Whitmarsh told www.autosport.com on Thursday speculation Dennis had lost the support of the team was untrue and that his colleague would be at the season-opening Grand Prix in Australia on March 16.

"The rumours are unfounded for a number of reasons," said Whitmarsh. "First, the visits were merely part of ongoing enquiries by the Italian authorities. As such they weren't really very surprising or therefore very stressful.

"Ron is fully supported by all our shareholders, all our management and all who work for our team and our company."

Mercedes-powered McLaren suspended chief designer Mike Coughlan in July after a dossier of Ferrari technical information was found at his home in England.

Ferrari, who won both titles last season after McLaren were fined a record $100 million and stripped of all their constructors' points, have accused their now-dismissed engineer Nigel Stepney of sending him the material.

Tibis has already interviewed McLaren's former driver Fernando Alonso, the double world champion who left for Renault in December, and Spanish test driver Pedro de la Rosa.

Stepney, who is also accused of sabotage by Ferrari but denies the charge, met the prosecutor in Italy last week.