There was a story on the site this morning quoting Joaquim Verdegay saying it will be hard to prove McLaren's guilt in the Stepney/Coughlan case - it seems to have disappeared?

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/60887

Verdegay was adamant he did not say these quotes, and since we were quoting AS, a Spanish newspaper that isn't always regarded as very credible, we could hardly argue with that stance. If a person insist he never said something, and we are not in a position to prove it otherwise, the only responsible thing to do is either publish a denial or retract the story. In this case, a denial would have probably made matters worse.

I see - thanks for the clarification Bira.

Does this sort of thing happen a lot with stories coming from foreign journalism? And is this why Autosport isn't reporting the same Italian newspaper cited in Pitpass linking Martin Whitmarsh and Paddy Lowe to the scandal? (Link).

This is just a curiosity thing, by the way, I'm not having a go at you!

Well, I will admit that we are being extra cautious in this case. I already said elsewhere that this is not a motorsport story, and while it may not be the end of the world if someone is wrongly quoted saying he is going to win the championship this year, it can destroy lives if something incorrect is reported in this affair.

We're doing our best to cover this whole affair with as much detail as possible, but with extra caution. I have to admit, this affair is showing us all the kind of power autosport.com has obtained. Something gets published in Italy and seems to make little ripples before autosport.com translates it and reports it. Suddenly, the day after, every British newspaper is reporting about it, quoting from autosport.com. It is a very flattering thought, but it's also a very sobering one. And I accept that we have to be more responsible than any other website. I also accept that any mistake in judgement will impair our reputation.

So both for the sake of those people who are being written about and for the sake of ourselves, I'd rather be quite confident - and certainly legally covered - in what we report.

As for the Italian report, it appears on the website of an Italian newspaper. We have known about it since early this morning, but elected not to run a story about it, as we are unable to ascertain the credibility of these quotes, and I feel these are too harsh accusations to spread without foundation. That is NOT criticism on the Italian newspaper, nor on other websites. They may well know more than we do. It is simply to say that we don't have a foundation to run such a story, and simply citing another source is, in this case, not enough.

Thanks for the coverage, Bira, and for the explanations. The quality and integrity of the first certainly sets you apart from the crowd and the existence of the second only strengthens that.

Cheers

That is very kind of you to say, thanks Gareth

Thanks Bira,
I sincerely hope, that our long and winding road ...er thread , has been of some help for you guys up there if, of course, someone had the nerve, the patience and the time to follow.
I can definitely say that the information published on Autosport site is regarded as the most reliable source in the largest national F1 site and its forum in my country.
Thanks again and be on the watch.

A very nice commitment to your craft. Nice to see some good guys left in the world.

Bira, your comments are really appreciated. Its good hear you opinions like that. All of you are doing a great job. Keep it up.

Come on Bira. I want ALL the dirt!!!!


seriously, keep up the good work. It's appreciated.

Since AS seem to be quoting Verdegay directly, I wonder if we'll see a lawsuit against them then?

I have to echo Gareth's comments, it's one thing to be responsible to your readers (and arguably that's the most important thing), but I would imagine it's an even more heady _responsibility_ when you're generally the primary source reference for much of the English speaking media.

Anyway, the coverage here has been sober, to the point, and sticking purely to 'facts'. I'm glad there has been little overt editorialising on this matter too. It helps separate the facts from the conjecture.

You know when you read something on Autosport.com you can trust it, and given the aggressive nature of web media, that's a pretty rare (and impressive) thing.

Anyway

I appreciate Autosport.com's stance and reporting in this issue as well. For some reason, rumours and speculations does not interest me at all in this case. It is complicated and wild enough without them. I rather wait for pieces of real information, and maybe even some facts, for a few weeks than to have people guessing for me everyday. I doubt we will ever know the full story but I don't think anyone really expect everything to come out either. You can not extract Stepneygate cleanly from the all the other "affairs" in, and around, F1. The amount of money involved is a good indication that there must be plenty of strong forces in action.

Ii too have been impressed with Autosport.com's coverage of the affair, including the magazine articles! Keep up the good work!

well done Bira & co.

all the latest developments keep me 'amused' and knowing that your group is doing your best to ensure its accuracy is another reason why I chose to subscribe to this site.

Well, the Italian media are reporting what autosport has to say, too.
http://www.gazzetta.it/Motori/Formula1/Pri...io/19/spy.shtml

I would really appreciate if it will not happen again, if possible. Put a "rumour" tag in front of it, if you have to, or don't. But if 3 days later that proves a non-story I think it would be much more professional to post a "denial/sorry" follow-up to the story instead just pulling it off the site with no explanations whatsoever.

Kind regards, Ruf.

Removing a story from the website is a drastic measure, that has only happened about three or four times that I can remember in about 10 years that I've been around.

Most certainly, we wouldn't removed a story three DAYS later, so I'm a little confused about your post. The Verdegay story was removed after less than a couple of hours, and for the reasons already explained above.