Mike Coughlan has commenced his new role as chief engineer of Williams, some four years after he was at the centre of the ‘Spygate’ row when he obtained information stolen from Ferrari while at McLaren.
Most recently he’s been involved in NASCAR with Michael Waltrip, but now he’s back. His appointment has caused some controversy, and to fend that off Williams has issued a Q&A in which he addresses the obvious questions.
“It was life‐changing because it made me reflect upon myself and my actions.,” he says of 2007. “Leaving a team and a sport that I love, and then seeing the consequences of my actions on the team and its fans was devastating. All I can do now is work hard and try to earn my place back in Formula One. This is what I am determined to do with Williams.”
Asked what he would say to those who feel what he did was unforgiveable, he added: “Well, I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to everyone who was affected by my conduct and in particular the people at McLaren and Ferrari and the fans of those teams. I sincerely regret my actions and I fully accepted the penalty given to me by the FIA. I can only hope that I can earn back everyone’s respect.”
Adam Cooper F1 
Wonder if he will send McLaren 100 million ?
Jeez, I think people need to get over the Coughlan hating.
What he did was absolutely normal in Formula One for years.
If a designer went to another team he’d take a hell of a lot of knowledge with him – why else would other teams poach designers?
The whole Coughlan episode led to hysteria which was totally pathetic.
Hmm. It is questionable as to whether he did love both the team and the sport at the time of the incident. I thought that he loved the money, and the better job prospects at Honda.
Why are there no other suitable professionals available to F1 teams, particularly for an established team like Willaims?
Coughlin definitely is a good hire for Williams, his talent and skills brought him to Mclaren. He has served his sentence, makes no excuses, is contrite and is looking to redeem himself, I hope Formula One in general is gracious enough to allow him to earn their trust. I’m certain that Sir Frank is.
Reality check: At fia.com, see Minutes of the 13SEP07 WMSC Meeting, Pages 53 to 64, i.e. Nigel Tozzi exposes PDLR and FAD, i.e. both fully qualified then for their super licenses to be instantly revoked and for lifetime bans from any motorsport activity.
I have read that document as well, and ‘instantly revolked’ and ‘for lifetime bans’ is more than an overstatement of the case. Alonso’s participation was marginal, and De La Rossa was at best an accessory to the violation.
The terms “marginal” and “accessory” utterly fail to disguise reality showing justice perverted by “plea bargain” and this obviously requires morally bankrupt players.
It was a WMSC meeting, not the Nuremburg trials.